1st Quarter Newsletter 2026

for the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum

SCREW NUTCRACKERS -- WHEN WERE THEY INTRODUCED?

It is easier to get a full kernel using a nutcracker with a screw mechanism as it allows pressure to be applied gradually until the nut is cracked, unlike the percussion or lever which apply a more forceful impact: however the screw mechanism was not used in the making of nutcrackers until the 17^th Century. Neither the builders of the pyramids or the ancient Chinese had this knowledge.  It was a Greek philosopher, Archytas of Tarentum, that is credited with inventing the screw thread about 400 B.C.

The first screws were made of wood and whittled by hand as accurately as the whittler could manage.  By the first century A.D., screws of both wood and metal were common in Greek technology.  Several had even survived the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D.   The development of the screw aided commerce in many ways, the first being known to assist in the wine industry of Greece, but the screw mechanism was not known to be used in the making of nutcrackers until the 17^th century. 

The first screw nutcrackers came from England and were used for opening the cob nut, the small wild hazelnut requiring only a small aperture. Consequently these early nutcrackers were small enough to be carried in the pockets, thus being called ‘Pocket Screws’.  Most of the early wooden English screws are simple in design, and many have teeth marks on the handles showing that teeth were used to get better leverage to crack the nut.  Although most of the early English screws shown in the LNM were simple in design, the LNM shows a highly decorated boxwood screw dated 1631.

Small simple designs some with teeth marks        Elaborate boxwood. 

By the 19^th century, hundreds of Swiss carvers were producing nutcrackers to meet the demand of the tourist explosion in Europe.  Animal and human figures appeared as nutcrackers from different conifer and deciduous woods using the screw mechanism.

           Picture typical swiss animal                             tall human screws

Franz Insam, in the Groeden valley of northern Italy, produced a spectacular variety of screw nutcrackers that were prized by collectors.  They were made of beach and featured delicately carved large hats.  In France the figure of Napoleon was the most popular nutcracker, and the museum shows a bust with  his medals, one with his Gala Costume, and a Napoleonic soldier. 

                         Big Hats                                                            French

An Alpine style of screw nutcrackers emerged in the French speaking area of Switzerland made of boxwood and highly decorated with sophisticated roundels and a heart shaped aperature. At the same time, intricate designs were crafted in France by a maker named Souan using a rounded nob for the handle.  He often used the interesting wood of a boxwood burr and many had ivory or horn for embellishments.

                    Swiss roundels.                                          Souan round

As the  tourism in Europe declined, so did the heyday of wood carving decline  and delicately carved wood screw nutcrackers became a scarce collectible.  They were replaced by simply designed nutcrackers, and children everywhere were having fun cracking nuts with Japan’s famous ‘Funny Faces”. Carvers in Poland were now producing many charming and charas matic screw nutcrackers in simpler designs and more common woods woods such as oak,and  walnut. 

                  Funny Faces                                                         Polish Carvings

Only a few nutcrackers made of all ivory exist today, most of which are from the 18^th and 19^th century.  Although ivory is relatively easy to carve, it is not strong enough to endure the rigors of the lever nutcrackers, therefore all-ivory nutcrackers are of the screw variety. The famous Meissen Porcelain factpry  manufactured a limited number of nutcrackers, however the actual cracking mechanism was  made of metal, usually brass

                          Ivory                                                       Porcelain Meissen

Most of the earliest metal screw nutcrackers shown in the museum were made in France of iron, simple in design, small in size, also meant to be carried in the pocket.  Expert metalsmiths however, used brass and silver that was more malleable and allowed for more intricate designs.

 Picture of small simple iron screws.          Picture of  more elaborate brass, etc. screws.    

Many metal screws nutcrackers in both metal and wood have been developed for home use to crack the nuts for grandma’s pies, and  in 1871, the H.M. Quackenbush Company of New York manufactured a cast iron screw nutcracker that has been reproduced by the millions over the years. Today you will find it, nickel plated, in almost every local grocery and kitchen shop.

               KITCHEN SCREWS                                QUACKENBUSH SCREW

FOOTNOTE:  From LOST ART PRESS:   “A History of Threaded Screws”

“The first person to make a screw probably did it by hand the way the Eskimos did. Historical photographs suggest the Eskimo’s technique: holding a piece of antler, bone or wood in one hand, they’d twist it past a knife grasped in the other. With the blade at an angle to the shaft, the knife would scribe a helical mark (a spiral) on the material, resulting usually in a left-hand thread because most people are right-handed (try it!). Then, whittling toward the incision, they produced a buttress-shaped thread that could hold a spear tip to its shaft.

That this isolated aboriginal society had threads is a glitch in the history of technology, since most researchers believe every screw on earth had direct ancestors in ancient Greece. Though helices appear in nature and in decorative arts worldwide, we know of no practical application of the shape until the first century B.C. in the land of Plato and Aristotle. The pyramid ­building Egyptians never thought of it; Chinese machinery did without screws until the 17th century. So if the Eskimos  did come up with the idea on their own, they share the pride of invention with a rather sophisticated culture”

Arlene Wagner, The Nutcracker Lady

Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum
Email: curator@nutcrackermuseum.com