The King of Dolls
LJEPOSLAV PERINIC

© 1999 by Ljeposlav Perinic (1922-2005) and Darko Zubrinic

I met Mr. Ljeposlav Perinic in the summer 1999 in Zagreb, after his friendly telephone call related to the famous Croatian Glagolitic Texte du Sacre in France. I learned an unusual story about his unique collection of more than 350 dolls in national costumes from over 120 countries, from all five continents. His invaluable collection contains dolls that he obtained as gifts from dignitaries, Kings, Queens, Emperors, Empresses, Presidents, First Ladies, Prime Ministers, Governors, etc. Among them are Pope Paul VI (the Vatican), Indira Gandhi (India), Carlos Menem (Argentina), G.A. Naser (Egypt), Grace Kelly (Monaco), Haile Selassie (Ethiopia), Farrah Diba Pahlavi - the First Lady of Iran, Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Konrad Adenauer (Germany), Queen Sofia of Spain, Mao Tse Tung (China), Dalai Lama (Tibet in China), Enver Hoxha (Albania), Moise Chombe (Kongo), then

(Nepal), Franjo Tudjman (Croatia), and many others.

How did he collect his dolls? Well, he simply wrote, and asked for dolls in national costumes. However, the story has deeper roots.

Born in 1922 in Split (his mother was a Croat from Boka Kotorska, at that time in Croatia), Mr. Perinic was only six years old when his father took him to the funeral of Stjepan Radic, assassinated in the Yugoslav Parliament in Belgrade in 1928. There he was fascinated by a great variety of picturesque Croatian national costumes that thousands of people wore, among them also the Bokelj Mariners in their typical solemn costumes. This picture remained deeply rooted in his mind. In 1946 he had met Marija Prpic while working for Croatian radio in Austria. It was a time of many troubles. A group of people escaped (from communism and misfortune) and arrived in Austria to a refugee-camp. Marija was allowed by her parents to travel since her brother Jure Prpic was in the group. While in the refugee-camp Ljeposlav and Marija were married in a wooden chapel by a Catholic Priest accompanied by friends. In 1947 they arrived to Argentina.

Very unusual name Ljeposlav of Mr. Perinic was given to him according to the Greek pope Calistos, which is Ljeposlav in Croatian. He arrived to Argentina with a boat from Genova, with 2000 Croats, mostly intellectuals like himself, who managed to save their lives from the slaughter immediately after the WW2 (see the Way of the Cross). On his first job in Buenos Aires he carried sacs of cement weighing 60 kg, while until then the most difficult object he had to raise was his pen. To his amazement, he noticed that the cement was from Croatia, from his native Split. Afterwards he used to say: I arrived to Argentina in order to build it with Croatian cement...!

Before his mother arrived to visit them in Don Torcuato near Buenos Aires for the first time in 1957, he asked her to bring dolls in Croatian national costumes. It was to be her first appointment with her three grand-daughters. When they saw beautiful Croatian dolls, they asked their father: "Father, do other nations also have their national costumes?" "Of course", was the answer. And the question was an impetus. Mr. Perinic came to a very original idea: to write letters to various statesmen and to ask them for dolls in their national costumes for his three daughters. As he said, "if I had only one boy among them, this idea probably would never come to me." And indeed, having sent three requests, soon after a doll arrived from the first lady of Mexico - Mrs. Eva Samano de Lopez Mateos, then from Konrad Adenauer, the founder of the new German state. Argentinean president Levingston explained in his letter that the state budget did not provide for the cost of dolls.

On the above photo, exhibited here with kind permission of the Jet Set journal (Zagreb), you will notice a mistake. As I was informed by Mrs Zdravka, daughter of Mr Perinic (who knows all her dolls very well), this very beautiful doll is a gift from Queen Sofia of Spain, and not from C. Menem as written on the photo. By the way, did you know that in 1981 Queen Sofia opened Museu Krekovic in Palma de Mallorca, gallery of the famous Croatian painter Kristian Krekovic?

His rich correspondence contains more than 300 letters from various statesmen and outstanding personalities, which he keeps in five albums. An interesting letter came from David Dacko, president of the Central African Republic. He wrote that there are "no dolls in his country", but thanks to Mr. Perinic's idea they soon started to produce them, and now little girls in Central African Republic play with dolls.

When Mr. Perinic, still anonymous, collected already 78 dolls in 1965, he thought to stop writing letters, since he had a modest apartment, with insufficient space for so many dolls. But, then 79th doll arrived, a Swiss guardian from Pope Paul VI, together with Pope's apostolic blessing for Mr Perinic's family. Upon the initiative of a local Catholic priest, an exhibition of dolls was organized that achieved tremendous success. It was visited by 10,000 people, including several ambassadors in Buenos Aires. The first exhibition of dolls in history attracted newspapermen from "France Press," "Reuters," "United Press," "The Associated Press." That is how he became known as the King of Dolls. The name Rey de las muñecas (The King of Dolls) was given to him for the first time in Mexico. It is interesting that the Spanish language, which is spoken by about 350 million people, has been enriched by two new words due to dolls of Mr. Perinic:

• muñecologo (coined in Argentina), and
• muñecoteca mas grande del mundo (coined in Uruguay).

In the following years he had more than fifty exhibitions of his dolls in Argentina, the USA and Canada. Through these exhibitions he took advantage to promote Croatian culture, its folklore and music. When an exhibition was held in Santa Barbara in the USA, a Jewish doll was stolen, which was a gift from Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. The value of the stolen doll was estimated to 20,000 USD. Soon afterwards newspapers wrote about this exhibition and Golda Meir, having learned about the disappearance of the doll during the exhibition, sent another one to Mr. Perinic!

When Indira Gandhi payed an official visit to Argentina in 1968, she brought two gifts in her bag: one for Argentinean president and another for Mr. Perinic. Neil Armstrong, a famous American astronaut, the first man who walked on the Moon, answered to Mr. Perinic that he does not know of a doll in Texas that would deserve to be in his collection. It is interesting to say that G.A. Naser, president of Egypt, used to send his Christmas and New Year's cards to Mr. Perinic regularly every year, until his tragic death.

It seems to be of interest to mention several answers that he obtained:

• French president Charles De Gaulle wrote that there was no doll in his palace that he could send.
• British Queen Elisabeth II answered that she does not send gifts to unknown persons.
• President of Surinam (at that time a Dutch colony in South America) John Henri Eliza Ferrier sent his signed photo instead of a doll.
• Mois Chombe (Kongo) started his letter with "Dear Madam Perinic"...
• The King of Swaziland in Africa answered that he has no dolls (and we know that he had 100 wives...)
• Perinic's unique Empire has a doll from Queen Gyalmo of Sikkim. Sikkim is a little known kingdom in the Himalayas.

Mr Perinic wrote an article about a Croatian painter Kristian Krekovic, famous for his gallery in Palma de Mallorca (Perinic, Ljeposlav: Kristian Krekovic, pintor croata-peruano (1901-1985), Studia Croatica, Buenos Aires, volumen 100, ano 1986, página 27-3.). It is interesting that Krekovic portrayed several outstanding persons:

• Mahatma Gandhi,
• the English Queen (in 1938, upon her request),
• the royal family of Spain,
• and the royal family of Sweden.

On the left you can see a lovely gift from Grace Kelly, princess of Monaco. Mr. Perinic was a frequent guest on TVs in several countries: Argentina, Uruguay, the USA, Canada, Croatia. In an official bulletin issued by the United Nations (Information UNESCO, No. 540, September 1968) a whole page was devoted to his dolls, that were described in an article entitled United Nations in the Dolls. If you happen to stay in Croatian capital Zagreb for a while, don't miss to see Mr. Perinic's collection that he donated in 1991. It has been permanently exhibited in the center of Zagreb (Zrinjevac square 14, Tourist information center, quite near the Embassy of the USA) in 2000. Great merit for very complex and nontrivial transport of over 300 dolls from Hamilton, Canada, to Zagreb, have Anamarija Snajdar from Croatian Radio Sljeme, and Petar Milicic, nephew of Mr. Perinic.

The Vicar of the Croatian Parish in Ottawa, Canada, who financially supported the transfer, it is interesting to say - was Black. When he visited Zagreb, on the occasion of the first exhibition of dolls held there in 1991, he also payed a visit to the most famous sanctuary of Marija Bistrica (near Zagreb) to see the "Black Madonna". On his return to Zagreb, he remarked to Mr. Perinic: The church was fantastic, it was packed with people, and what was very interesting, was that only the Madonna and me were black, while all the others were white!

The international exhibition EXPO '67 held in Montreal in Canada had also a small pavilion full of dolls. It was Mr. Perinic's pavilion where he exhibited his collection, unofficially called Croatian pavilion (it was also the sole exhibit of Argentina). He had numerous charitable exhibitions of his dolls, mainly for UNICEF children's program. As an example, one of exhibitions of his dolls was organized in order to help children in Argentina suffering from leprosy. On another exhibition of dolls, funds gathered in this way sufficed to build a house in the children's village in Garin, in the vicinity of Buenos Aires, directed by S.O.S. OPROVI Argentina. Here S.O.S. Children's Village is a well known charitable international organization, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949 in Austria. It is interesting that the building was named - CROACIA.

Eleonora Aimone, Argentinian poetesse and writer (born in Italy) wrote the following verses dedicated to the King of Dolls (published in Marulic, Zagreb, 6/1998):
 

El Rey de las muñecas     A Ljeposlav Perinic Saber de ti es remontar  al cielo de un amanecer soñado  Es trepar nubes de ilusión  y descender, con las manos llenas  de rizos y de tules bordados,  de zapatitos y faldas multicolores,  de cintas y monos labrados.  Saber de ti es volver a la infancia,  a mecer en nuestros brazos  la muñeca con bucles de oro, la de trenzas negras,  la vestida de harapos  o el soldadito con el sable en la mano.  Saber de ti es la certeza inefable  de haber encontrado un espacio  donde se detiene el tiempo,  un estanque de aguas claras,  un soplo de brisa perfumada,  un Edén de paz donde  un duende pasta su ternura  entre niños de porcelana...  y tu mirada.

Kralj lutaka     Ljeposlavu Perinicu Znati za tebe to je kao vinuti se  u visine zore u snu naslucene.  Lebdjeti po oblacima umisljaja  i sletjeti punih ruku  vezena finog tila i pramicak uvojaka,  cipelica i sarenih haljinica  uresenih vrpcama i masnicama.  Znati za tebe to je kao vratiti se u djetinjstvo  i na rukama ljuljati  lutku zlatnih uvojaka,  lutku crnih pletenica,  i onu u dronjcima,  ili pak malenog vojnika sa sabljom u ruci.  Znati za tebe to je kao neizrecivo pouzdanje  da smo naisli na mjesto  gdje se zaustavilo vrijeme,  vrelo bistre vode,  lahor mirisava povjetarca,  rajski vrt srece i mira  gdje duhovi secu sa svojim drazima  medu djecicom od porculana...  i tvojim zacaranim ocima.

From Mr. Perinic's card:

As we see, Nikolai Podgorny, president of Russia, donated 15 dolls: one from each of fifteen former Soviet republics. It is interesting that during an exhibition dolls held in the province of La Pampa in Argentina a Russian doll had disappeared. Calls from local radio were frequently broadcast during the whole day in order to find it, but in vain. Finally, a father of a 5 year old child brought it the next day, saying with excuses that he has found it in his car. Mr. Perinic is very proud that children stay very long at his exhibitions. Their parents just as well.

MEXICO:

COLLECCIÓN PERINIC - SIGLO XXI :