Nutcrackers

King Nutcracker and his Court enjoy a high rank in Erzgebirge folklore. Even in our days, nuts serve to decorate the Christmas tree, alongside with apples, gingerbread and sweets.

However, nuts need to be cracked to taste their tempting inside. Before the nutracker was born, peoples used a particular kind of tongs to open the shells. These tongs were soon shaped as folklore figurines that were both functional and decorative. As early as the middle of the 18th century, nutbitters were known in the Erzgebirge town of Schneeberg. Such a sturdy wooden fellow showed a thick head and a lever at its bach by which one could operate its lower jaw so as to crack a nut in its mouth. E.T.A. Hoffmann made this folklore figurine immortal in his charming fairy tale of the Nutcracker and the King of Mice.

Today, Seiffen nutcrackers are famous all over the world. The prototype of about 1870 goes back to Wilhelm Fuechtner. No change worth mentioning has been made neither to its design nor to the way it works. A nutcracker's beauty derives from its individual design, from the materials used go together, and from the details of how it is made up. We hope you will enjoy the novel collection of Mueller nutcrackers.