Unique Authentic Hand Painted Handmade Olive Green Nesting Dolls Set of 10 Pcs Russian Matryoshkas This set includes 10 handcrafted and hand painted dolls The size of the biggest doll is 4.7" inches Made from real Linden wood. Non Toxic. WARNING * Choking hazard * Not recommended for children under 3 as small items inside HISTORY: Matryoshkas date from 1890. The story goes that Sergei Maliutin, a painter from a folk crafts workshop in the Abramtsevo estate of a famous Russian industrialist and patron of arts Savva Mamontov, saw a set of Japanese wooden dolls representing Shichi-fuku-jin, the Seven Gods of Fortune. Inspired, Maliutin drew a sketch of a Russian version of the toy. It was carved by Vasiliy Zvezdochkin in a toy workshop in Sergiyev Posad and painted by Sergei Maliutin. It consisted of eight dolls; the outermost was a girl in an apron, then the dolls.