Buratino [Tver]

Product Description

Buratino (Буратино). Scarce Tver folk art figure that depicts Buratino hiding behind the Golden Key. Playful Russian arts and crafts piece with enhancements that include wood burning and painting. 1980's. 5¾" x 4⅝" x 2½". Like new. 1 only.

Aleksey Tolstoy (1883-1945) wrote his children's book The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino in 1936. The book and character is hugely popular in Russia and has been make into several films. Buratino is the main character in Tolstoy's adaptation of Carlo Collodi's (1826-1890) Adventures of Pinocchio, written by him in 1883. Buratino is derived from the Italian burattino, which means wooden puppet.

Buratino, similar to Pinocchio, is a long-nosed wooden puppet carved from wood by Papa Carlo (analogous to Geppetto) who comes to life. His nose is due to Papa Carlo's sloppy woodworking (and does not grow by lying). Instead of going to school as wished for by Papa Carl, Buratino joins a local puppet theater show, makes friends, and runs afoul of the evil puppetmaster Karabas Barabs (analogous to Mangiafuoco). The puppets search for a certain Golden Key that Karabas once possessed. Other characters include Malvina, the blue-haired puppet, Alice the Fox and Basilio the Cat, Artemon the poodle and Pierrot.