Just to add a bit to the excellent work of justaskscott-ga,
"Nutcrackers of one form or another have been used by man ever since
he learnt to pick up a rock and used it to smash open a nut shell.
Some early documented references to nutcrackers are :
* Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1343 - 1400) is reputed to refer to a
nutcracker in the Canterbury Tales
* 1372 in France, Jeanne d'Evreux refers to 'a device in silver for
breaking nuts worth nine Francs'
* 1548 in England, Sir Thomas Elyot uses the Latin term
'nucifrangibulum' for a nutcracking device
* 1650 in England, an entry in 'Discolliminium' says 'He was fain to
make a nutcracker of it'
* 1664 in England, John Evelyn commented on the suitability of boxwood
for the construction of nutcrackers in his work Sylva on trees and
forests
* 1792 in England, Foote tells of 'a pair of nutcrackers presented by
Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn' in Nabob.III.Works;
These early nutcrackers are believed to have been of the lever type -
usually a pair of nutcrackers, the screw-based nutcracker probably
first appeared in the 17th Century.
Wood was the earliest material used and it is likely that pincers
forged by local blacksmiths formed the basis for early wrought iron
nutcrackers, these were then further developed in other metals such as
bronze and brass"
http://www.nutcrackers.org.uk/nc02.htm
"Household utensils documented for the sixteenth century include
hammerstones for cracking nuts"
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmack/algonqin/feest2.htm
"No one knows when the first nutcracker was made. It is known that as
early as 1725, there were nutcrackers in the homes in the Erzgebirge.
Simple wooden figures equipped with a lever device to crack nuts. It
is correct to say that the nutcracker is at least 250 years old in
its' tradition."
http://www.eurochristmas.com/geninfo/nuts.htm
"The Legend of the First Nutcracker
Provided by Tannenbaum Treasures
Long ago there lived a very rich, but very miserly and lonely farmer.
This farmer had walnut trees all over his property, but he had no time
to crack the shells to get at the meat inside. Because he had no time
for such foolish actions, he offered a prize for anyone who could come
up with an easy way to crack the walnut shells. One day an old puppet
carver came to the farmer's home with a beautiful brightly painted
puppet. The puppet had a large mouth and strong jaws- strong enough
and big enough to crack the walnut shells. That was how the first
nutcracker was made"
http://www.christmasmagazine.com/english/mc/nutcracker.asp
Best regards
THX1138 |
