The Little Japs' Tea Party

Three small Japanese dolls with  chairs and table. Lid of box has British and Japanese flags on it, with picture of set. This suggests it was marketed as part of the British-Japan exposition of 1910.

Looks suspiciously as if made in China or elsewhere to exploit the vogue for Japanese wares. The cherry blossoms on the lid are nice but the thatched garden house does not look very Japanese (to say nothing of the very un-Japanese furniture).

The dolls themselves are crude compared to real Japanese dolls. (See the Valentine doll for another example) The cotton kimono, for example, are unlined and unfinished, contrasting with the clothing of similar small dolls from Japan inthe period. However, they represented Japan, as is shown in the third image below, a photograph illustrating a 1912 publication of a poem called "The Japanese Doll" (click for full text).