Role-playing plays a part in children’s socialisation process, and this type of imitation helps to prepare them for adult life. While they are too young to organise and tidy the house, they organise the life of their dolls and toys.

Traditionally, dolls have held a social function in preparing girls for the role they were given at a very early age: that of caring for their children and the home. The domestic world is also represented in their toy kitchens, tea sets, the miniature play food in their dolls’ houses and other play items such as irons and sewing machines.

This area holds dolls from different eras and made in different materials, from the traditional Catalan “pepa” dolls made of cardboard to the more sophisticated Lenci dolls made in the inter-war period in Italy, or the first Barbie - made of plastic - which dates back to 1959. Among the dolls produced in Europe, the first talking doll – “Le Bébé Parlant” – produced in France between 1860 - 1890 stands out.

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