Pinocchio (1883 Marionette Workshop)

Pinocchio (1883 Marionette Workshop) recreates the smell of pine shavings and the scratch of a burin: Carlo Collodi's talking log as Geppetto's carpentry bench, where every surface is planed timber and every image is a hand-cut engraving. Raw walnut and pine grain form the ground; a few strokes of vermilion and Prussian blue do all the shouting.

Colour is scarce and precious — two folk paints over honest brown wood, all of it hatched and cross-hatched in ink after Enrico Mazzanti's original plates for Felice Paggi. It should feel like a marionette half-finished in the vise: chisel marks, grain, and one bright dab of paint.