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Our Toy Maker Nutcracker Gifts are 6 inches tall. The Nutcracker Gifts are wearing a red shirt with gold buttons, collar and cuffs, blue pants, black boots and a black hat with a gold brim. The Toy Maker Nutcracker is sitting on a wooden keg. The toy maker is sitting in front of a wooden work table with a sample of the toy maker’s handy work. There is a white toy horse, a small Christmas tree and a grey mouse on top of the table and two small toy soldiers hanging from the front of the table. The Toy Maker Nutcracker Gifts are sitting on a red and gold rectangular wooden base. Select this link to view our wooden nutcracker toy soldiers.
The History Of Nutcrackers
A nutcracker is a device for cracking nuts. It works on the principle of moments derived from Archimedes' discovery of the lever.
Nutcrackers as wood carvings of a soldier, knight, king, or other profession have been known since at least the 15th century. These nutcrackers are carvings of a person with a big mouth that is opened by pressing a lever in the back of the figurine. Originally one could insert a nut in the big-toothed mouth, press down and thereby crack the nut. Modern nutcrackers in this style are mostly for decoration.
The carving of nutcrackers as well as religious figures and cribs developed as a cottage industry in forested rural areas of Germany. The most famous nutcracker carvings come from Sonneberg, Thuringia, also a center of doll making, and from the Ore Mountains. Wood carving was usually the only income for the people living there. Today their income is supplemented by the travel industry bringing visitors to the remote areas.
Nutcrackers have become popular in the United States as well and a recreated "Bavarian village" of Leavenworth, Washington even features a Nutcracker Museum. Many other materials were used for the decorated nutcrackers, such as porcelain, silver, and brass, and can be seen at the museum.
Carvings by famous names like Jungbanel, Mertens, Karl, Kolbe, Petersen, Ulbricht and especially the Steinbach nutcrackers have become collectors' items. Select this link to view our Christmas nutcrackers village people.
History of The Nutcracker Ballet
The Nutcracker Ballet is over 100 years old. It was first presented at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 17, 1892. The famous Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky was commissioned by the renowned choreographer Marius Petipa to compose a ballet score based on Alexander Dumas’s adaptation of E.T.A Hoffman’s tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” The composer and choreographer had previously collaborated on Sleeping Beauty. When Petipa fell ill, his assistant Lev Ivonov finalized the choreography for the ballet.
The first production of The Nutcracker was a failure, neither critics nor audience liked it. However, future productions proved more popular.
The San Francisco Ballet company was the first company to perform The Nutcracker in the United States. Their 1944 production was directed by William Christensen. The idea for the San Francisco version came from the memories of a teacher in the ballet company named George Ballenge who remembered a dance he performed in Russia as a child.
However it is master choreographer George Balanchine who is credited with bringing new life to The Nutcracker. He also had danced in The Nutcracker as a child in Russia. In 1954 he mounted a production of The Nutcracker for the New York City Ballet. It is this production that paved the way for the popularity of The Nutcracker and its status as a holiday tradition. In fact many of the versions of The Nutcracker we see performed today are based on the version created by George Balanchine. Select this link to view our wooden nutcracker toy soldiers.