Our Tall, Slim Nutcrackers are 24 inches tall including the square wooden base they stand on. This Tall Slim Nutcracker is wearing a gold crown with red plastic jewels at each point and a red cap in the center. His uniform jacket is navy blue with gold epaulettes, trim and collar. Gold plastic jewels down the front and white cuffs. His pants are red his boots are black with gold tops and gold plastic jewels. The Tall, Slim Nutcracker has a black and gold knife hanging at his side. Select this link to view our Christmas Nutcrackers Village People.
Nineteenth Century
The ornamental peak of the military uniform was reached in the early 19th century in Western Europe. Sometimes the Napoleonic Wars are identified as being the acme of colorful and ornate uniforms, but actually the several decades of peace that followed were a time of much more decorative styles and embellishments. The Napoleonic soldier on campaign was likely to present a shabby and non-descript appearance as unsuitable peacetime dress quickly deteriorated or was replaced with whatever local substitutes were available. Until later on in the century dyes were primitive and different batches of uniforms worn by the same unit might present differing shades, especially after exposure to rain and sun. The white uniforms popular amongst many armies through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries soiled easily and had to be pipe clayed to retain any semblance of cleanliness. Green as worn by Jager and Rifle regiments proved particularly prone to fading until suitable chemical dyes were devised in the 1890s. British soldiers were known for their striking red clothing (hence the name “Redcoats”). This was actually a fairly dull shade of madder red until the general adoption of scarlet for tunics in the 1870s. Select this link to view our Christmas nutcrackers village people.
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 grey-green in 1909, followed by the German and Austrian armies who adopted different shades of grey. The Russians had changed to a grey 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 grey-green uniforms for all occasions in 1903, reverted to a combination of dark and light blue in 1910, took up light grey in 1915 and finally settled for khaki in 1923. The Imperial Russian armies following their adoption of khaki-grey 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 lifesize nutcrackers.