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Nutcracker collectibles
40 www.EliteEquestrian.us
A wine glass in the shape of a balloon will offer
the drinker to experience more aspects of a wine
than a glass of a different shape. A small, narrow
wine glass will keep wine cooler in the glass and
help the drinker concentrate on the wine’s specific
traits. Since more people are drinking easy-to-enjoy
wines like Sauvignon Blanc and light reds like Valpolicella
on a regular basis, I am seeing collectors
looking for smaller wine glasses from the 1940s to
the 1950s, in crystal, as well as larger blown wine
glasses from the early 1900s and the 1970s.
When it comes to bold red wines, just like
flamboyant and fantastic Italian paintings, look for a
wine glass with a large bowl. The large bowl allows
the red wine to swirl around and make contact with
the air breaking down any bitter, tannin taste. This
tradition of enjoying a big hefty glass of red wine
has resulted in new trends in the antiques world.
Not only are wine lovers looking for appropriate
glasses but they are also seeking out antique and
old style furniture. Many wine lovers are buying
free-standing wooden storage cabinetry for vintage
wine glasses, barware, and collectible wine bottles.
Wine lovers are looking for sturdy glass stemware
that can host a nice big glass of Bordeaux,
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Collectibles
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According to reports, an Italian bronze nutcracker dating back to the 4th century
B.C. is among the earliest one known and King Henry VIII gave Anne Boleyn a
nutcracker as a gift. Nutcrackers span the globe among various cultures.
Sparked by famous examples amassed by collectors, an interest in the history of
cracking the nut uncovers three basic methods to free a nut from its shell: percussion,
lever, or screw. Materials used to make nutcrackers run the gamut, including
stone, wood, and metal.
For instance, nutting stones were found in North America and parts of northern
Europe 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. A nut placed in the depression of a stone was
smashed by another stone, called a hammer stone, to reveal a nut inside the shell.
Nutcrackers may be carved from pine, cedar, spruce or other conifer trees. Linden,
beech, ash, oak or boxwood often are chosen among deciduous trees. With a
wooden screw-type nutcracker, introduced in the 17th century, a nut sits in an open
cavity of the cracker and a screw comes down hard enough to crack it.
Some early nutcrackers display metal hinges or levers. For instance, a leverforced
nutcracker works with a nut placed in the mouth of a cast metal figure such
as a dog, alligator or wolf. A nut positioned in the belly of a carved nutcracker
figure helps prevent damage to the decorated face, with a lever at the back or an
elongated nose creating a lever for cracking.
Dating to the 1700s, Italy’s Groden Valley was the famous site for the creation
of figural nutcrackers made of pine and paint. In northern Italy, carvers produced
lever nutcrackers. Well-known artisan Anton Riffeser established the Anri firm in the
1920s.
Germany’s Erzgebirge percussion nutcrackers from the Ore Mountain region are
popular with collectors for their tall hats and brightly colored costumes. Carvers
from Norway, Denmark and Sweden produce highly recognizable nutcracker figures
of fishermen, street vendors and seafarers.
German makers Otto Ulbricht and the Steinbach firm became known for nutcrackers
with fanciful accessories. Holiday forms often include reindeer, Santa Claus or
characters from, of course, the “Nutcracker Suite.”
Ivory was tried but could not withstand the force of repeated use. High-style china
table settings included porcelain nutcrackers. The top of a famous porcelain screw
nutcracker by Meissen, with a brass wheel for crushing the nut, matched the china
pattern.
Once nuts were cracked, metal picks became necessary to dislodge them. Other
accessories include nut bowls, serving spoons, nut openers used to pry open
cracked nuts. Fruit knives, essentially small-scale pocket knives, were used to eat
fruits and nuts at the end of a meal. Ever-popular nut bowls often came in pairs
– one for nuts and the other to hold loose shells.
Sets of a nutcracker and assorted pick have been popular. They were the brainchild
of a 19th-century dentist, Henry Quackenbush, whose initial start in making
dental tools made him famous as a nut-cracking technician.
For wine lovers, to fully understand and enjoy all things grape is the most important
facet of collecting wine and wine accessories. What is growing more and more
interesting to antique and vintage wine and barware collectors is the reintroduction
of collecting the right glass for your favorite wine.
I have found that many wine lovers are quickly becoming wine glass or goblet
collectors. Where crystal glasses and wine glasses had fallen out of favor with millennials
and other spirited drinkers who didn’t want to be presented with the chore
of hand washing delicate crystal or storing glassware with every use, recently,
finding the perfect wine glass from bygone days is fast becoming a new and fun
collecting trend.
Wine aficionados say that enjoying wine is as much about tasting it as it is
about smelling it. So, your wine glass should be of a shape that allows both senses
to work in unison. Here is some information about wine glass shape and its impact.
Burgundy, or Malbec. So bigger is better when it comes to a complex wine which
means wine glasses of traditional shapes and styles are all the rage now.
Antique collectors are looking to the shape of old glasses from the Renaissance
and Baroque periods as models for the enjoyment of bold red wines. Also, they are
amassing collections of dainty, tapered stemmed wine glasses in cut crystal or glass
that recall the glassware of the 18th Century or French Rococo period more suited to
delicate white wines.
Why did we drink wine in a stemmed glass in the first place? A stem allows the heat
from our hands to be transferred only to the stem and not to the area where the glass
hosts the wine. So always hold your wine glass by the stem.
Stemless wine glasses are growing in popularity yet there are fewer antique and
vintage options of stemless wine glasses for collectors to collect. It isn’t as easy to find
an antique stemless wine glass but many people are drinking wines, dare I report, from
non-traditional stemless wine glasses of various shapes most of which date from the
1960s and 1970s.
When it comes to collecting trends, overall social practices rule and enjoying wine is
no exception. When you are taking of the grape, remember the all-important wine glass
shape.
New Trends in Wine Glass Collecting