Clay Whistles, Russian Pottery Whistles. Guest Post.

Russian Folk Art Pottery Clay Whistles with Woman Figures. M. Oboeva
(Марианна Обоева)

SHORT INTRO
During the years I developed a growing interest in CLAY & POTTERY WHISTLES,
first as an amateur collector of these and gradually studying and developong this niche of collecting & study. While doing so I had the pleasure of meeting some great & knowledgeable collectors.
Pottery – Clay Whistles had been a subject I had not written about in my blog here, but it is time to start, Clay whistles of different countries Whistles, have typical features , and may be more so with traditional Folk Art.
I have asked my honorable guest, Marianna Oboeva to send 10 photos and few words as intoduction to Russian Pottery Clay Whistles.
She chose the subject of Women Figures (All whistles).
So I leave the stage to a short guest article from Marianna Oboeva a collector,
an Artist and expert on Russian whistles, that chase the theme of feminine figures within the subject of Russian Folk Art Clay whistles, In her own words, with Photos.
A. Strauss

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Cabinet-of-very-old-Russian-Clay-Pottery-Whistles-collection-of-M-O.jpg — Early Pottery Clay Whistles Folk Art, Russia. Глиняная свистулька
The two bears are 17th Century Moscow. (Collection of M. Oboeva)

Hello Friends and whistle collectors / M. Oboeva (Марианна Обоева)

Hi, my name is Marianna Oboeva and I collect the world’s folk toys.
In my collection there are not only clay and not just whistles, but here I bring few whistles, of course. In a way, here I am «responsible» for the Russian whistle. )
But how to fit all the variety of Russian toys into 10 photos?
In Russia, there are several dozen craftplaces of clay toy art are known.
Some trades have disappeared, often with their villages. But many have survived, some have even been revived by the efforts of modern masters.

I decided to make my task a little more difficult, as well as to make the Photos sequence more logical, and chose one subjet, but from different places.
The subject I chose is of a female image.

The difficulty lies in the fact that, firstly, not all trades use this theme,
and secondly, it should be interesting to you, the woman is one of the most ancient themes, it was probably sacred earlier.
And for this reason, the figure of a woman very often does not have a whistle.
But toys with whistles sold better at fairs.
The girls could not choose, they wanted a doll, but also a whistle !! Therefore, the masters began to give the women a bird shaped or a cat shaped whistle.
This is a very common artistic reception, but it is all the more interesting to observe the imagination with which the masters of the design with a whistle come up with in other cases. Also, female figures give an idea of the local traditional dress.
Most of the toys presented were made in the 60-70s.
(Only one – From Sudja – was made in early 2000s.)

This was the time of interest and study of folk crafts in Russia.
This process was uneven in our country, There were periods of keen interest,
but there were periods when folk art was forgotten for years.
These toys came from other collections.

Старый Оскол, Белгородская область
Петровское, Костромская область
Хлуднево, Калужская область
Филимоново, Тульская область
Плешково, Орловская область
Александра-Прасковинка, Рязанская область
Суджа, Курская область
Абашево, Пензенская область
Хлуднево, Калужская область
Демидово, Рязанская область

List of whistles in photos & Their Region :

Stary Oskol Belgorod region
Petrovskoe Kostroma region
Khludnevo Kaluga region
Filimonovo Tula region
Pleshkovo Orel region
Alexandra-Praskovinka Ryazan region
Sudja Kursk region
Abashevo Pensa region
Khludnevo again Kaluga region
Demidovo Ryazan region

Facebook — Folkartmuseum Instagram — folkart_oboeva
I would be glad to answer your questions about the Russian whistle.
Marianna Oboeva – Марианна Обоева Музей народной игрушки мира
https://www.facebook.com/Folkartmuseum/

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