NUTS ABOUT THOSE NUTCRACKERS
	DECEMBER 2003

by Craig Rogers
Photos by Brad Shifflett

Someone who apparently had a lot of time on their hands once figured out that there are four different ways to crack a nut: direct pressure, indirect pressure, screw, and percussion. The most popular way, of course, is the second way as we use the lever in a nutcracker to apply indirect pressure to a nut that we are trying to open.

The world of nutcrackers, however, has little to do with actually cracking nuts and a lot to do with collecting interesting objects and valuable works of art. Most of us think of nutcrackers as having especially to do with Christmas, but the blurry, buzzing world of collecting is populated by a large number of people who center their lives upon collecting nutcrackers of all sizes and descriptions.

My wife and I have always had a small collection of nutcrackers. Even though we haven’t gotten into this big-time, we both share a love for these things and understand the fascination they hold for people who collect nutcrackers in a serious way.

Entering the World of Nutcrackers
The Brothers Grimm, of fairy-tale story fame, created the first definition of the term nutcracker (“nussknacker”) in their dictionary in the 1830s, with a curious description of nutcrackers as being:

...often in form of a misshaped little man, in whose mouth the nut, by means of a lever or screw, is cracked open.

The Nutcracker Ballet, of course, provides the main door for the entrance into the world of nutcrackers by almost everyone in our western civilization. It is performed to the strains of Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable music every year in hundreds of opera houses, concert halls, and school assembly halls.

Every holiday season children of all ages watch again the adventures of Clara as she once again fights with her older brother, Fritz, and again breaks the ugly yet fascinating nutcracker doll dressed as a prince, that was made by their mysterious and eccentric clockmaker-godfather, Judge Drosselmeier. The fantastic music and fantastical story that follows burns itself into the imagination of all the members of the audience, both young and old. And, as an unintended by-product, the story creates a mystique about nutcrackers that has taken up residence in the hearts of many American theater goers.

Growth of an Art Form
The Nutcracker Ballet has been performed for 111 years. However, Aristotle reportedly owned a nutcracker that incorporated a lever more than 200 years before the birth of Julius Caesar.

The earliest fancy nutcrackers began to evolve into a real art form in the hands of European craftsmen in German mining regions during the 16th and 17th centuries.

When mineral deposits expired, out-of-work miners began to turn their woodcarving hobbies into creating a serious nutcracker-carving industry. Armies and nations of wooden nutcrackers in the form of soldiers and kings started to make their appearance in dining rooms and parlors throughout Europe.

Centuries ago nutcrackers played the role of our contemporary bobbleheads. For the amusement of the people, woodcarving craftsmen created nutcrackers that were caricatures of authority figures of that day, such as priests, soldiers, and policemen.

The images on later nutcrackers poked fun at important political figures of the day, such as Napoleon and General Bismarck. The most popular figures were representations of kings, and especially soldiers, which inspired Hoffmann’s fairy tale about the little girl Clara’s nutcracker that came to life as the handsome soldier. Nutcrackers came to be regarded as good luck pieces and, like a horseshoe over the door of some barns, they were kept in houses in the hope that they would provide luck and protection to the home.

From Art to Industry
A huge jump in nutcracker popularity took place during the 1870s when a manufacturing genius named Wilhelm Füchtner used lathes to create multitudes of identical nutcracker figures and ushered in the age of commercial nutcracker production.

The most famous of the nutcracker manufacturers, Christian Ulbricht and especially Steinbach, followed hard on the heels of Füchtner’s innovations and, even today, dominate the nutcracker marketplace, both in terms of their value to collectors and the prices that the two companies are able to command for their products.

Steinbach raised the bar for collectors by selling nutcrackers in limited editions. The first of these, bearing the likeness of King Ludwig II, was limited to 3,000 pieces. Limited editions like this, of course, greatly raised the appeal of the pieces for collectors and (even better from Steinbach’s point of view) enormously raised the price that could be charged for each piece.

Even though companies now turn out nutcrackers by the hundreds and thousands, the production cycle for one of the premium nutcrackers is a complicated and painstaking process involving many separate procedures carried out by a team of skilled craftsmen over a period of several years. The highest priced products bear hand-carved components that workers have made using techniques handed down through generations of skilled craftsmen.

An Old Hobby Comes to the New World
People in America only became interested in nutcrackers about 50 years ago when soldiers brought many of them back when returning from WWII. The appearance of all these interesting devices was soon followed by the meteoric rise of the Nutcracker Ballet in the 1950s. The Ballet eventually became enormously popular and focused people’s attention on buying and collecting nutcrackers.

American collectors now spend more money on nutcrackers than any other country. As a result, nutcrackers can now be purchased that bear a caricature of such American figures as Uncle Sam and Santa Claus. The largest collection in the world, perhaps, is an American collection with more than 5,000 pieces. More than 4,500 nutcrackers are on display at the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum in Washington State.

Any of these beautiful, expensive works of art can still crack nuts, probably. However, using them to do so would be considered an awful breach of etiquette to the collector who has doubtlessly purchased the remarkable handcrafted collectible solely to put on display for the admiration of friends and visitors.

How to Become a Collector
People are attracted to the hobby in various ways. Not every nutcracker collector comes into the hobby as a result of the ballet. I read about one person who became involved with nutcrackers as a serious collector after his wife brought home a garlic press that she had bought at a flea market. She wasn’t able to press any garlic. The guy checked the piece over and discovered that it was actually an antique, reversible nutcracker! He was fascinated. He became a major collector.

If you are interested in becoming a nutcracker collector yourself, you should choose a focus for your collection. A good way to do this is to go to the Nussknacker Haus website www.nussknackerhaus.com and pick out a nutcracker style that you like.

You might want to concentrate on a particular brand, e.g., Steinbach or Ulbricht. You might also consider a theme. For example, you might collect soldiers, Santa Clauses, or sportsmen. A surprisingly extensive collection can be made of occupations ranging from veterinarians and lawyers to firemen and ship captains, etc. Last year my wife gave an amusing pharmacist nutcracker to her friend who works in that profession.

Another fun topic for collectors is the seasons, or concentrating on one of the seasons. Christmas would be an obvious possible choice, but imagine how interesting it would be to have a collection of nutcrackers around a summer theme.

Some collectors choose an ancient society and very often will begin with a king and then select members of the king’s retinue and kingdom: queen, soldier, chef, farmer, and so forth.

Other collectors choose to focus on a series and will collect, for example, nutcracker soldiers, figures from the Nutcracker Ballet, American history, or figures from fairy tales.

Be careful, however! A collection can begin small with a few pieces and grow into a monster that devours all your time and energy. Stay within normal boundaries. Have fun! But don’t go nuts with those nutcrackers!