Our Toy Maker Holiday Gifts are 10 inches tall. The Toy Maker is wearing a tall midnight blue hat with a gold brim. His costume also consists of a midnight blue shirt with white buttons and gold collar, red cuffs, a black belt around his waist, red pants and black shoes. He is holding a wooden tray displaying several dolls and a bird house with his tools hanging in front. The Toy Maker nutcracker also has a hammer in his right hand and more toys at his feet. Select this link to view our Christmas nutcrackers village people.
German 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 Wooden Nutcracker Soldiers.
The Story of The Nutcracker
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 mention 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. Two moving arms on the back of the head allowed the lower jaw to push the nut against the upper jaw. 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.
The literary career of the nutcracker began with the 1816 publication of E.T.A. Hoffmann's fairy tale Nussknacker und Mausekönig, a children's book that helped bring the nutcracker into broader popularity. In the spirit of a time when the importance of the family and children was beginning to be emphasized, Hoffmann vividly depicted a sympathetic soul, Under the Christmas tree a very excellent little man became visible that stood there still and modest. He waited as if they would all come to him. The job of the nutcracker was to work hard for the children of the family by biting open the nuts.
Thirty five years after the publication of E.T.A. Hoffmann's classic, the nutcracker reappeared as a central character in Heinrich Hoffmann's story King Nutcracker and the Poor Reinhold 1851. In this story the poor Reinhold becomes acquainted with the Nutcracker King in a dream.
The nutcracker did not always play the role of the good hearted fairy tale king. More often he wore a monk's robe or was made into the form of a mean looking policeman, a Turk, master of the watch, a cavalry man or some other grotesque helmeted figure with a long nose. He appeared, for example, as a caricature of Napoleon on an 1813 Parisian picture sheet. By the end of the 19th century he appeared almost consistently in the catalogs of the toy wholesalers as a representative of the contemporary authorities. What started out as a practical tool often ended up as an expression of light irony and a social critique by the common people. Select this link to view our Large Nutcrackers.