Our Rifleman Wooden Nutcrackers are 15 inches tall. The Rifleman Wooden Nutcrackers are wearing a tall, black velvet, hat with a domed top, gold braid and a white feather plume and a red plastic jewel in a gold setting in the center. The Rifleman Nutcracker Costume consists of a brick red, flock coat with blue plastic jewel buttons, gold glitter collar and gold ribbon and trim decorations on the front of the coat. The Rifleman Nutcracker has gold shoulder pads with gold braid eppelletts, gold cuffs, blue pants and black boots. The Rifleman Wooden Nutcrackers are holding a long black rifle with a gold scope and gold edging, at their right side. Select this link to view our wooden nutcracker toy soldiers.
A Nutcracker Fable
Once upon a time, in the mountains of Germany, there lived a young boy with his mother and father. The boy’s father woke up early everyday and went to work in the mines. The little boy was scared to stay at home without his father, whom he loved very much.
So that his son would not be frightened, the father carved him a wooden nutcracker which had fierce eyes and teeth. He told the boy that he should not be afraid because he was safe from harm with the nutcracker there to protect him. The boy was still afraid, so every night when the father came home from the mines, he worked on carving a new nutcracker for his son. He gave his son many different nutcrackers, a guard, a painter, a clockmaker, etc. These nutcrackers protected the boy and kept him company while his father was away. The boy always felt safe and when he was older and had a son of his own, he passed on the nutcrackers to him, so that he would always be protected from harm. As the nutcrackers were passed on, the collection grew bigger and bigger as each generation added its own special touch. Select this link to view our large holiday decorations.
The End of Bright Colours
Until 1914 the majority of armies still provided colourful dress uniforms for all ranks, at least for parade and off duty wear. These often retained distinctive features from the past. Most Russian troops for example wore the very dark green introduced by Peter the Great in 1700. German infantry generally wore the dark Prussian blue of the previous two centuries. Bavarians wore light blue while two regiments of the Prussian Guard were still issued with the brass mitre caps of the eighteenth century grenadier. The British retained their scarlet tunics for parade and "walking out" wear while the bulk of French regiments wore red trousers with dark or light blue tunics. The infantry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire discarded their historic white tunics in 1868 in favour of dark blue. Retained, however, were the extremely large number, of colours appearing on collars, cuffs and shoulder straps to distinguish the various regiments. There were for example ten shades of red, ranging from cherry red to pink. The Swedish Army had favoured dark blue with yellow facings since the beginning of the eighteenth century. There was infinite variety, even within smaller armies, between regiments, branches or ranks and the subject is a very complex one. However by 1914 drab colours were increasingly being adopted for active service and ordinary duty wear. The British had worn khaki drill in India and Africa since the Indian Mutiny of1857. A darker version was adopted for home service field wear in 1902, the same year that the US Army also adopted khaki for non-dress occasions. The Italians introduced gray-green in 1909, followed by the German and Austrian armies who adopted different shades of gray. The Russians had changed to a gray shade of khaki in 1908, following their experience in the Russo Japanese War of 1905. There was however strong attachment to the colourful uniforms as previously worn on all occasions and the process was not an inexorable one. The Danish Army adopted gray green uniforms for all occasions in 1903, reverted to a combination of dark and light blue in 1910, took up light gray in 1915 and finally settled for khaki in 1923. The Imperial Russian armies following their adoption of khaki-gray field uniforms in 1908, took the opportunity to upgrade their parade uniforms to much more elaborate and colourful styles, and were experimenting with a mix of khaki and bright colours when war broke out in 1914. The Japanese Army probably went further than most in adopting khaki for all occasions after 1905, although even here officers and the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard retained traditional coloured uniforms for formal and ceremonial occasions. Select this link to view our Large Nutcrackers.
