Vintage Russian Tea Cozy Doll Stockinette Molded Cloth Face Tea Soaker Kimport For Sale

🎀 THE MATERIAL GIRLS ~ A VINTAGE COLLECTION

Volume I ~ Grandma

An Old World tea-time treasure with a personality all her own.

Meet Grandma.

After more than twenty years in retirement, this wonderfully eccentric lady is ready for her next chapter.

With her expressive hand-painted face, sleepy blue eyes, pursed little lips, flaxen-looking hair and magnificent gathered skirt, Grandma is an enchanting example of the marriage between domestic utility and decorative textile art.

But beneath that voluminous country dress lies her most interesting secret.

• Face & Expression: A beautifully modeled stockinette-style cloth face with delicately painted brows, narrow down-glancing blue eyes, rounded cheeks and a wonderfully distinctive puckered “O” mouth.
• Hair & Styling: Light-colored, flaxen-looking hair swept back from the face into a simple gathered hairstyle.
• Hands & Pose: Sturdily stuffed arms ending in long, individually formed cloth fingers, held together in her characteristic clasped pose.
• The Costume: An extraordinary full-gathered dress in an aged blue-and-tan floral calico print, with long sleeves, generous ruffling and a contrasting coral-pink shoulder shawl.
• The Tea-Cozy Construction: Beneath her enormous outer skirt is a substantial padded and quilted underbody, finished in a charming blue-and-white floral textile. This distinctive construction is consistent with traditional textile tea cozies designed to fit over a teapot and help retain warmth.
• Collection: The Material Girls — Volume I, “Grandma.”

Height: 16 inches
Overall diameter: approximately 12 inches

Please compare these measurements with your intended display space.

In Russian tea culture, elaborate textile tea cozies were sometimes fashioned as character figures, combining the practical purpose of helping to keep a teapot warm with the artistry of handmade textile dolls.

Similar figures are known in the collecting world as Russian tea-cozy dolls or “Tea Soakers.” Historical collector references also document comparable figures being marketed in the United States through Kimport, including examples described as “Tea Soakers” in the 1941 Kimport Dolls catalog.

Grandma shares many of the visual and construction characteristics associated with this fascinating tradition.

Her exact maker, country of manufacture and production date are not documented, and she carries no visible maker\'s mark. The Kimport reference is included as historical context for the type rather than as an attribution of Grandma herself.

Today, she is equally wonderful displayed as a collectible textile figure, distinctive kitchen accent, shelf sitter, or wonderfully eccentric piece of vintage folk-art decor.

Grandma is offered in vintage, as-found, and as-is condition.

Her textiles show substantial age-related fading, discoloration, surface wear and areas of gentle fraying. Her molded cloth face shows visible age and wear, while her painted features retain their wonderfully individual expression.

Her substantial padded/quilted underbody remains present and appears structurally intact. Its insulating performance has not been tested.

Grandma has been carefully preserved in climate-controlled storage for approximately twenty years.

Please examine all photographs closely, particularly the detailed views of her face, costume and underbody construction. They are an important part of the condition description.

Given her age and delicate textiles, she is recommended primarily for decorative display rather than regular use with a hot teapot.

After two decades of well-earned rest, Grandma is ready to take her place in a new collection.

Whether presiding over afternoon tea, adding a little character to a country kitchen, or simply keeping watch from a hearth or sideboard, she brings a little history, a little whimsy, and a great deal of personality wherever she goes.

Beautiful things deserve another chapter.

Thank you for visiting Lowcountry Jax, where beautiful things find their next chapter.

🌿 Lowcountry Jax
Collected. Re-imagined. Timeless.