Puppeteer Nana Bediashvili donated a replica of the “Harlequin” doll she crafted to the Tbilisi Museums Union – Dolls and Toys Museum for the 80th anniversary of the museum on May 18, 2018.
Initially trained as a French language specialist, Nana Bediashvili ventured into crafting wax dolls and figurines during the 1990s. Some of her notable creations are preserved within the Tbilisi Dolls and Toys Museum.
Nana Bediashvili explains, “The ‘Harlequin’ doll holds significance for many movie enthusiasts, having appeared in the film ‘Don’t Worry.’ The original ‘Harlequin’ was lost from the museum. I recreated its colors based on the movie and tried to replicate it.”
The “Harlequin” doll became part of the Dolls and Toys Museum in the latter half of the 1930s. Known for its animated movements and ability to play and stick out its tongue. However, the doll’s previous owner appeared to be annoyed with this feature and removed its tongue. Originating from France in the late 18th to early 19th century, the doll was crafted by the renowned musical-mechanical toy maker, Léopold Lambert. In the movie “Don’t Worry,” there’s a scene where Benjamin Ghlonti visits General Vamekh Vakhvar at the Palace of Pioneers. This location once housed a doll museum, and it’s from here that “Harlequin” found its way into the movie, later becoming one of the renowned dolls. Alongside “Harlequin,” the film featured a Sadaf-encrusted Bul—a small cabinet for storing documents—preserved within the museum. Upon its purchase for the museum, the Bul was a solitary black cabinet, as the previous owner had painted it black to hide its luxuriousness. It took years of restoration to revert the exhibit to its original appearance.
However, in 1996, Harlequin and five other distinctive mechanical toys mysteriously vanished from the doll museum.
