HISTORY OF NUTCRACKERS….
Nuts have been a significant part of the food supply since the
beginning of time, and over the years, man has created ingenious
ways to open the shells.
Excavations
of early civilizations have revealed nutshells that were probably
broken by stones when too hard for the teeth to crack. Pitted
stones used for cracking nuts have been found in various parts of
the United States and Europe and have been dated back to the
Archaic Period, 4,000 to 8,000 years ago. These nomadic peoples
would camp near the nut trees when it was time for the nuts to
fall. Kernels were eaten whole or ground to make flour or nut
butters.
The
oldest known metal nutcracker dates to the third or fourth
century B.C. and is shown in a museum in Tarent, Italy. The
Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum shows a bronze Roman nutcracker
dated between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. It was found in 1960 after
being buried for over 1800 years.
I
ron
lever nutcrackers are shown in the Ironworks Museum in Rouen,
France with some dating back to the 13th
century, and brass nutcrackers are known to have existed in the
14th and 15th century. At first these metal nutcrackers
were hand wrought, but in later centuries, hot metals were
poured into molds. England became famous for its brass
production and produced many nutcracker styles, and the United
States was known for its cast iron products.
The
first wooden nutcrackers were simply two pieces of wood fastened
together by a leather strap or metal hinge. By the 15th and 16th
century, wood carvers in France and England were creating
beautiful wooden nutcrackers. They used the wood from their
locality, but preferred boxwood because of its fine grain and
uniform color. Many of these delicately carved nutcrackers can
be seen in the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum.
 |
By the 18th and 19th
Centuries carvers in Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy
were producing many carved nutcrackers in the likeness of
animals and humans. |
|
|
 |
The screw nutcrackers did
not appear until the 17th century and at first these were
simple in structure. However, it was not long before artisans
were carving and shaping intricate designs. |
|
Standing wooden nutcrackers in
the form of soldiers and kings were
shown in the Sonneberg and Erzgebirge regions of Germany by 1800
and in 1830, the term “Nussknacker” appeared in the dictionary of
the Brothers Grim. It was defined as “often in the form of a
misshaped little man, in whose mouth the nut, by means of a
leaver or screw, is cracked open”. In 1872 Wilhelm Füchtner,
known as the “father of the nutcracker,” made the first
commercial production of nutcrackers using the lathe to create
many of the same design. The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum shows
an 1880 miner of Wilhelm Füchtner along with a miner presently
made in the Füchtner family workshops.
 |
Today many wooden toy
soldier nutcrackers are manufactured in Germany to meet the
demands of the many collectors in the United States. This
interest is renewed each year by the many productions of the
Nutcracker Ballet. Collectors can now find designs in the
characters from the ballet as well as hundreds of other
designs. |
|
|
 Few
nutcrackers have been produced in fragile materials such as
ivory, bone and porcelain that still exist today, but some can
be seen in the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum. |
Many factors have contributed to the
evolution of the nutcracker’s form, functionality and
character….the availability of materials, advances in production
techniques, styles of the times, consumer demand, and even
changes in the nuts themselves. A study of nutcrackers is a
study of history itself as they reflect the cultural values and
innovations of the place and time of origin.
The Nutcracker Museum is
handicap accessible.
