Doe and Hope

Description

Wonderfully well proportioned, the cast iron nutcrackers with finely detailed skull hinged top and bone handle, impressed with makers mark JHB and registered date mark of RD 740410.

The nutcrackers are in superb working condition and there are no defects to report aside from a few minor scuffs consummate with age, the whole, with a wonderful aged patination.

Nutcrackers of many types have been used through the centuries though at first the nutcracker was probably ones teeth or perhaps a hammer or mallet. The first metal nutcracker dates from the third or fourth century B.C and by the nineteenth century, many elaborate and ingenious types were made such as this more unusual pair, though with levers, screws, and hammer adaptations the most popular. The use of registration numbers such as Rd No.740410, as we see here, began in 1884.

A rather ghoulish and macabre way to eat ones brazils whether it’s Halloween, Christmas or a night in front of the fire. Moo hah hah!...