Died 1975, Athens, Greece | Parents Despina Pappa-Paschalidou | |
Lili (Julia) Paschalidou-Theodoridou (Greek language: Λιλή Πασχαλίδου-Θεοδωρίδου, Istanbul 1911 – Athens 1975) was a Greek dollmaker.
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Biography
Paschalidou was born in Istanbul (Constantinople) in 1911 and she was daughter of the businessman Constantine Paschalides and the doll maker Despina Pappa. As a student of the Zappeion Girls School of Constantinople, her education included learning French and English, while painting was already part of her regular activities. In 1922 her family left Istanbul and moved first to Varna in Bulgaria, later temporarily to Thessaloniki and then finally to Athens, where they settled permanently in 1925. In 1934 she married Yura Theodoridis. Together they had two children.
Paschalidou-Theodoridou’s family included various artists like her sister Helen Zongolopoulou, the notable sculptor Yannis Pappas, the painters Helen Pangalou and Andreas Vourloumis etc.
Doll workshop
In 1948, after her husband’s death, Paschalidou launched a professional doll making career with the support of her mother, who used to be a prominent dollmaker during the Interwar period (she owned a workshop for handmade dolls in Athens). Her small business was in Nea Smyrni, Athens. She employed two other women, refugees from Asia Minor, one of whom had earlier worked for her mother. Her handmade dolls were dressed in Greek traditional costumes that she designed, sewed and embroidered, and she herself also painted the dolls’ faces. For making her dolls faces she used molds especially created for her by the sculptor George Zongolopoulos, her sister’s husband. Lili standardized two different doll sizes and made a leaden bottom of their feet in order for them to stand better.
Paschalidou-Thodoridou was granted a special research permit from Antonis Benakis to study and copy the different costumes in the Benaki Museum collections. She made accurate drawings of woven textiles, embroidered designs and ornate headbands, and in total reproduced 36 authentic traditional costumes, men’s and women’s, from various regions of Greece.
Collaborations and exhibitions
In 1949 Paschalidou-Theodoridous dolls attracted the interest of the Royal Welfare Foundation with which she began a collaboration that would last 20 years. She also collaborated closely with Angeliki Hatzimichali, as the famous Greek folklorist valued Lili’s work included it in her Greek folklore store in the Grande Bretagne Hotel on Panepistimiou Street in the center of Athens.
Paschalidou-Theodoridou’s dolls were taken in also by organizations such as the Greek Handicrafts Organization (later EOMMEX), the then famous tourist shop “Greek Folk Art” on Voukourestiou Street and the National Tobacco Organization, for which she dressed her dolls with costumes from tobacco producing areas of Greece. She also supplied dolls without clothes to the American Near East Foundation. Her dolls travelled to International Exhibitions through her partnership with the National Tobacco Organization, and in the late 50s received awards at the International Exhibition of Melbourne.
In 1970 Paschalidou - Thedoridou stopped working and closed her workshop. She died in 1975 in Athens.
A part of Lili Paschalidou – Theodoridou’ s work is held in the Benaki Museum in the Museum’s Permanent Childhood, Toys and Games Collection, as well as in several private collections.