King Wood Nutcracker with Cape
is 6 inches tall and stands on a 2X1.5 blue with gold trim base. These Wooden Nutcrackers Soldiers are wearing a Kepi style hat that has a gold band, a gold ball on top, and a golden leaf design with a red dot in the center of the leaf design. This king is also holding a gift box in his right hand that has a red plastic jewel. The Christmas Nutcracker Decorations have a knee length black velveteen with a gold braid trim cape over his shoulders. His uniform jacket is red with a green front that has a gold lining and a navy blue shirt. The jacket has gold cuffs and a gold lining around the bottom with white trousers that have golden cuffs and his black boots finish off the outfit. Select to look at all of our Christmas Decorations Ideas for the holidays.
Nutcracker History:
The earliest nutcrackers were simple and functional tools. Through time, carved characters emerged in the 15th and 16th centuries. Many carved characters took on the image of birds, animals, Christmas Nutcrackers Village People and human forms. When a nut was placed in the "mouth" of dolls, levers or screws on the back could be worked to push the lower jaw up against the upper jaw to crush the nut. The nutcracker story began with the creation of European nutcrackers in Switzerland, France, Germany, and England during the 16th and 17th centuries. Select to find out how Christmas Decorating with Nutcrackers will brighten up the holidays.
In the German regions of Sonneberg and Erzgebirge the nutcracker dolls were cleverly designed to resemble powerful people like kings, policemen, and soldiers. The townspeople enjoyed the caricatures of their rulers, because they were placed at their service to perform the lowly task of cracking nuts. Eventually, these one-of-a-kind standing Wooden Nutcrackers Soldiers and kings became a symbol of the region and were sold all over Europe. Nutcracker pictures of the period recorded these early wood creations. A holiday table setting was not complete without a bowl of holiday nuts and a handsome doll standing beside it! Select to find more Nutcracker Decorations ideas for the holidays.
The combination of a useful tool and a figural form with a human appearance was well accepted by the mid-18th century. In the toy making center of Sonneberg in the Thuringian Forest there was a reference mentioned in 1735 of "nut-biters" that operated according to the principles of leverage. These nut-biters were described as sturdy, energetic forms with large heads and two moving arms. The body holds a long handled lower jaw that allows the jaw to push the nut against the upper jaw to crack it. In a carnival parade in 1783, students from Freisingen, Germany presented large models of Berchtesgaden wares, including a nut-biter in the form of a little man whose mouth and stomach were one and the same. Select the following link to view our Wooden Nutcracker Ornaments.
It is in the 18th century Sonneberg and Erzgebirge regions of Germany that the term "nussknacker" appeared in the first dictionary of "High German" by the Brothers Grimm (the dictionary was begun in the 1830s), and is described as "often in form of a misshaped little man, in whose mouth the nut, by means of a lever or screw, is cracked open." Many different authority characterizations--monks, police, not-so-popular political leaders, even Napoleon--were created to amuse people, but the popular king and soldier figures undoubtedly inspired the famous 1816 nutcracker story publication of E.T.A. Hoffmann's fairy tale "Nussknacker and Mausekönig." Hoffmann wrote about a Nutcrackers and The Nutcracker Story of Marie's prince was created. Select the following link to view our Large Nutcrackers.
