Nutcracker Museum

2nd Quarter Newsletter 2024

for the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum

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YES, THE NOSE KNOWS FOR SURE!

Jimmy Durante’s elongated proboscis brought so much attention that he was known as ‘The Great Schnozzola’, and Cyrano De Bergerac sported his long nose to advantage in the theater. Now we find that noses get attention even in the nutcracker museum. We recently received a carving from Germany created by the well-known artist, Matthias Dietzsch, and children of all ages delight in seeing how a nut is cracked by lifting this man’s long nose. (Pictured Below)

The museum shows over 66 makers of wooden toy soldier nutcrackers, both past and present, and in Michelle McMullen’s identification studies, we examined body shape, size, eyes, teeth, feet, and noses. What a difference in designs! In the Halloween display we show the longest nose in the museum….a witch crafted by John Bruce of Bruce’s Woodworks in Utah. (Pictured Below)

The early figures of Paul Petersen have an inset nose along with inset ears. These facts along with beards fashioned of raffia, make these early Petersen nutcrackers exceedingly rare collectibles. The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum shows the very first Petersen nutcracker and many other early designs that have been gifted by Helgard Petersen who wanted them in our museum because so many Petersen nutcrackers are now owned by collectors in the United States. (Pictured Below)

Nutcrackers made in Switzerland were popular souvenir items for tourists in the 19th and 20th centuries, and many carvers were employed in the trade. This long nosed gentleman is displayed in the museum along with others having a long nose or hat brim that is raised to crack a nut. It has a beautiful dark sheen as it was carved of walnut. (Pictured Below)

Another fascinating 19th century Swiss nutcracker featuring a nose is this unfortunate man who has a bird settled upon his head and is reaching for the man’s nose. This carving is a screw nutcracker made of beech and measures just 4.5 inches. The receptacle for the nut is underneath the carving. (Pictured Below)

This large Devil head has a mouth big enough to crack a walnut. He has a creepy grin and a scary expression with his glass eyes and would make a good decoration for Halloween. It comes from Switzerland, circa 1900, and was made of linden wood. Linden is the wood most commonly used for nutcrackers. It is known as bass wood in the United States. (Pictured Below)

This seated man with exceedingly long nose comes from Belgium. To crack a nut the nose is lifted to insert a nut in the mouth. This early 20th century man is made of deciduous wood and is over 11 inches high. Deciduous wood, as opposed to the needle woods, is favored because it is less susceptible to knots.  (Pictured Below)

A carrot is usually found as the nose of a snowman nutcracker, but this antique Vegetable Man sports a carrot nose atop his gourd shaped body with parsnip arms and potato feet. It was made in Germany about 1900, a survival of a Halloween toy of the time, and was first shown in the Old Salem Toy Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. (Pictured Below)

The children in the museum have great fun with a row of 9 such nutcrackers as this one with colorfully painted bodies, long noses and elongated feet. Many more such comical nutcrackers are seen in the Estes Nussknacker Museum Europa located in Neuhausen, Germany as these are very popular with German children and can be made by amateur woodworkers. (Pictured Below)

The United States produced many cast iron nutcrackers in the 19th century, and this clown has a long nose that acts as the lever to crack a nut. The crazing on the finish on this clown has probably been caused by the paint having been applied too thickly which resulted in uneven drying and cracking. ‘Craquelure’ is the term used to describe a network of fine cracks on the surface of materials. (Pictured Below)

From Thuringia in Germany the museum shows another clown with long nose, this one carved in boxwood, circa 1905. Since this is a later date than the cast iron clown above, could this design have been suggested by the American one, or could both have been copied from a design we do not know? (Pictured Below)

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Arlene Wagner, The Nutcracker Lady

Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum Email: curator@nutcrackermuseum.com