French Country · Encyclopedia · Wrought-Iron Tools
Nutcrackers
Three nutcrackers: a seventeenth-century brass one polished by use, an older one in finely chased bronze with jaws shaped as an animal head, and a third in worked iron that also cracks walnuts.
French: casse-noisettes, casse-noix · 17th century and earlier · brass, bronze, iron
At a glance
- Period: seventeenth century and earlier
- Materials: brass, bronze, iron
- Decoration: animal-head jaws, chasing
- Comparable piece: Renaissance museum, château d'Écouen
What they are
A nutcracker is a pair of levers joined by a hinge. The examples in the book show how a simple tool attracted decoration: the bronze one, the oldest, has jaws shaped like an animal's head and finely chased surfaces.
A long history
The book notes that the Renaissance museum in the château d'Écouen, near Paris, displays a nutcracker of that period already very similar to these. Hazelnuts and walnuts were part of the everyday diet, and in walnut-growing regions such tools were essential.
Collecting and displaying them
Check the hinge for wear and old repairs. Brass and bronze develop a warm patina that should not be over-polished.
A bowl of nuts with an antique nutcracker beside it is a simple, practical way to live with these small treasures.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 120–123, with general background on the object. The book was published in 1995, so workshops, people and figures are described as they were then. Regional names and dates are given as the book records them; a style or a region of origin does not by itself date an individual piece.