My folk and ethnic dolls are classified time after time into the database, the inner structure of the bilingual website "The Lost Dolls Society".

Each doll is the subject of a detailed description featuring a photograph. So you can look at a particular item out of my collection following the menu.

This page contains all the elements to access to the database site. To make navigation easier, interactive criteria are gathered in side colums as follows:

1. 1. French dolls provinces
2. 2. Dolls from all over the World
3. 3. Unclassified dolls or on sale
4. 4. Labelled dolls
5. 5. Specific approach criteria

In their beautiful costumes, these dolls reflect lost traditions of each country or province they stand for. Indeed, beyond this passion, collecting folk dolls make us travel and think about the history of territories.

The dolls of French provinces

These dolls are classified by provinces, namely old territories known as result of both customs and history. As I am French, I initially prefered dolls and costumes from my country. I now have many of them. The costumes diversity often features caps from an area or a city. The cloth nature generally is adapted to the climate and bright or dark colors reveal the complexity of French regionalism. Thus, heavy fabrics and fine clothing are found in Brittany, black color in Corsica and bright colors from sunny regions like Spain or Languedoc in the south...

During the Revolution in 1789, the creation of so-called départements or administrative divisions or counties threw away the 38 former provinces of French territory, cutting down their long history. During the twentieth century, doll manufacturers and costuem makers were to revive old France. In recent decades, there were quite a lot before disappearing. Few survived while diversifying, but downgrading the quality of doll making. The most famous brands are now highly sought after by collectors.

Britanny, the richest costume province:

- Britanny is certainly the French region that brings together the most traditional costumes and very specific headdresses. Many local associations have worked to keep folklore in many festive events. Inspired by authentic costumes, dolls from Brittany usually top-quality, are among the most collected dolls.

The map of historical and traditional Britanny below is free of rights , will guide you through each province. This is a very significant example of complexity of local regionalism.

Géographie de Bretagne - Tous droits réservés - 2005 - 2006 Production: Mikael Bodlore-Penlaez - www.geobreizh.com

Dolls from all over the World

As indicated below, I also own folk dolls from more than 100 countries sorted alphabetically and gathered by continents. Of course, Europe with its long history,has many traditional costumes. Beyond our borders, folk dolls are worth seeing. The quality sometimes differs from one country to another. Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Romania, are particularly rich in costume dolls. In some countries material could be handmade.

Dolls from rare countries are difficult to find. Like French dolls, my collection comes from flea markets, auction sales, leisure trips ...from Europe, Africa, North America and Southeast Asia. I have many European dolls, as I visited quite a lot of countries.

Although far away from our culture, other areas are mosaics of people,who have kept their customs and traditions with astonishing outfit (namely Asia, the former USSR, and so on. ...)

From Europe to Ural and Central Asia....

Eastern borders of the European Union closing Asia, the former Soviet Union gave birth to many independent Republics :
- The Eastern Europe which Russia (*) , Belarus , Ukraine and Moldova . - The Central Asia with RSS Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Turkmenistan , Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan.
- Caucasus which Georgia , Armenia and Azerbaijan .
- Baltic states , which have joined the European Union, Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania.

(*) The Russian Federation is divided into districts (green outer lines), represented here until Ural upt to Siberia and China including various political status:
- A republic with its own constitution, president and parliament
- Oblasts: federal areas
- Krais:, the most remote and the least populated
- Autonomous Okrug districts (subdivisions of an oblast or krai) established on ethnic criteria, mainly Russian
. - Federal independent cities of the oblast

These areas gathers a mosaic of ethnic groups, peoples and cultures. Thus their costumes with beautiful colors are reflected in the traditional folk dolls. They are often hard to find and authentic. I have a few so i put them together into the list (Russia and the Baltic countries).

Reactive map below is only modest support for identifying these often overlooked areas and better locate the matching dolls.

In untying the cursor some information will appear in order to become familiar with the map.

Interactive map below is just to help you identifying these remote and badly known areas and looking the matching dolls.
While using the cursor, some information will appear in order to become familiar with the map.

(From Wikipédia and official web site of the States) - Situation in 2008
Map create by the french webmaster of this web site.