Steinbach “King Louis XIV — The Sun King” Nutcracker Famous Royalty Series, LE 7,500

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 03:59:09 +0000

German nutcrackers weren’t born as cute Christmas props. In the Ore Mountains, as mining faded, woodworkers carved stern “little authorities”—kings and soldiers whose biting jaws mocked power while cracking real nuts. In Seiffen, Wilhelm Füchtner standardized the toy-soldier form in the 1870s, and families treated the figures as good-luck house guardians. After WWII, U.S. GIs carried them home and, paired with Tchaikovsky’s ballet, the nutcracker became a global holiday icon.