✿♥~♥ Korean Sonokong Queen Inhyeon Doll ♥~♥✿

I'd never even heard of this type of doll before last week when I was doing my usual drooling through Ebay and found this listing, copied and pasted below:

"This doll is made by Sonokong and is in a played with but clean condition. She is 11" tall aprox and is fully articulated. She is dressed in the costume of a 17th Century Korean Queen."

I tried a Google search, but couldn't find any information on her at all, but I thought "What the hell, she looks pretty, her clothes are stunning and with any luck she will look even better in person", it turned out that was a total understatement!

It turns out she's also ball jointed, has rooted lashes and the most beautiful fabric has been used for her costume, it's also high quality and incredibly detailed.

Her outfit is a traditional costume, referred to as "Hanbok" - I'm pleased to learn that the tradition of wearing such beautiful costumes is still practised in Korea although nowadays, it is mainly kept as a form of dress for Celebratory or Festive occasions. 

This stunning doll's beautiful Hanbok is known as "Chima Jeogori" worn during the Joseon Dynasty (July 1392 – October 1897) by Royal Women in their Palaces.

It consists of  a very ornate "Dangui", a knee length outer garment, open from under both arms, worn by both men and women, but not the King or Crown Prince, who both wore an Ohjoeryongbo, which is a similar style garment but much more ornate, than those worn by Commoners and even Women of the Royal court. 

Commoner's Hanbok was traditionally white, as only people of the Noble classes and Royalty were allowed to wear colourful and ornate garments, this lead to the use of the descriptive term "The White Clad People" in relation to the Korean people. 

 The Dangui was worn by Women of the Royal Court over  a "Jeogori"  (type of short waist length jacket, held together with a half bow at the front, as was the Dangui ) this covers her upper body and arms, the shoulders and chest have large covered embroidery appliqué circles called "Ohjoeryongbo", for the doll's costume, these have been decorated in gold thread and gold decorations to the end of the sleeves back and front , this is also a sign of the wearer's nobility. 

Traditionally they would have used a technique called "Geumbak" to decorate the Royal clothing, the word "Geumbak" refers to the art of applying thin layers of Gold Leaf to the Ohjoeryongbo, Dangui and Chima areas of the costume, for the Queen this would be applied in phoenix shaped patterns.

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The Empress and the Queen had Geumbak depicting a Dragon emblem which was used as decoration on the front, shoulders and back of the Dangui;  as did the King or Crown Prince on his Ohjoeryongbo - a similar style garment to a Dangui, but much more ornate.

Below this she wears a very ornate Chima (skirt) decorated with golden embroidery (Geumbak) at the bottom. This sits over a plain white "Sokchima" (petticoat), with plain white trousers underneath.

 On her feet she wears a pair of  Beoseon, these were traditionally a type of socks that were quilted for protection from cold weather and in some cases an under sock was also worn inside, there are several types of  Beoseon that were worn traditionally in Korea, but as her's are plain and made of thick cotton, I am not entirely sure which type she is being depicted as wearing, but traditionally the Queen would have worn Beoseon made of white silk.  

Her hair is elaborately styled, in a rolled braided bun, that sits at the base of her neck (this style is often referred to as a Chignon) and decorated with a brown ribbon this has been plaited into the hair, and a very ornate ornamental pin, called a "Binyeo". The ribbon was used to hold a "Cheupji" in place, sadly my doll is missing this part of her costume*.

 A Binyeo is an ornamental hairpin used to hold the Chignon in place. The material the Binyeo is made from and it's design, were used as an indication of the social status of it's wearer.

 Women in the Royal Family wore Binyeos made of gold and carved into the shape of a phoenix or a dragon the size of them varied, in some instances Binyeo have been made and worn, that were 2 foot long!

*A Cheupji is an ornament which was placed on the top of plaited and styled hair and worn as part of a woman's ceremonial dress. Royal women wore this item every day but women of  non Royal status were only permitted to wear it on such occasions when they wore ceremonial dress, example below.

Photo found on http://www.trendkorean.com

    After receiving this doll I realised that being Asian a " 17th Century Korean Queen" would most likely have been given the title "Empress", so I began to search online for that in the hope of finding more information on this gorgeous doll I now own, so I did a Google search and discovered that Sonokong have made quite a number of these beautiful dolls, not only a whole range of these stunning Traditionally dressed  dolls, but also a range of more contemporary dressed dolls, which is great if you love this girls face, but also want the option to play dress up with her, rather than keeping for for display and photographs only...

 Even better than that my new addition is in fact a depiction of a real person, not only that, but a very beautiful by all accounts Queen Consult called Queen Inhyeon. 

Here are two very beautiful images I found of  a recent adaptation of a novel called Dong Yi by Chon Che-in, which is based on her life.

Photo found on http://dreamkorea.sunphoto.ro/regina_Inhyeon/34807672

Photo found on http://dreamkorea.sunphoto.ro/regina_Inhyeon/34807676

Wikipedia gives her life dates as 1667 - 1701, and her I have to say, her story is fascinating, so much so that it has been the subject of many films, books, plays etc.

Here's a link to the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Inhyeon

 And here's the Sonokong Doll information I've discovered: Sonokong is a Korean toy company who have started making dolls under technical partnership with Takara, so says an Ebay listing for a similar doll.

I'm really impressed with the quality and attention to detail on these dolls, as well as their beauty.

Image and caption taken from http://www.trendkorean.com Korean Barbie Doll who is a very famous Queen Consort Inhyeon

And this excellent series of images of her body shape and movement, I found again on trend Korean .com, where they have a whole range of these beautiful dolls, dressed in some really elaborate historical costumes, each one of them is beautiful, I've been finding myself drooling away while looking at them all, if you'd also like a quick drool you can check them out using this link: http://trendkorean.com/prestashop/73-ball-jointed-body

 As I am not planning on undressing her, for fear I won't be able to get her clothes  back on and looking the same, I haven't had the opportunity to see how her body looks beneath her costume... also whipping off the clothes of a Korean or any other Queen for that matter, is most likely a form of Treason!

http://trendkorean.com/prestashop/content/17-ball-jointed-body-of-korean-barbie-doll

I can't remember which website I was looking at the other day, but the only one I could find at the time stated that the doll's costume is made from Korean Silk and listed her sale price as being $112.89 (£69.46), not bad for a doll I paid less than £5.00 for!

This is how her missing Cheupji should look as you can see in the first image below, I found this series of images on  Dolls Korea.com who are selling her for 65,000 won (£37.60)!

Looking at her missing Cheupji, it should be a pretty easy "fix" to replace this, I already have a similar bead in one of my "bead bottles" in the studio (hopefully, it will be the right size) and a plastic page binder which is a similar shape to the Cheupji itself so with a little Magic Sculpty and a bottle of  Gold Vallejo Model Colour, I should able to have it made up in next to no time, the only issue will be raising the ribbon enough to sew it on, as it is on her head pretty tight, still I'm pretty confident I will be able to sort this out for her real soon!

That's it for now,