Where did you get that nutcracker ?? I haven`t seen one like that !!
Mart, I almost forgot about you question. I was going to take a full-view picture of it and uh ..... oh well.
Mart, that nutcracker was in a local Saturday morning auction .... but grimy dirty and no paint on it and looking like junk. I had stopped by just to see what was being sold but couldn't stay. When I spotted it I told my good friend ... "Dick, I want you to buy that for me and I'll pay you when I see you next".
And he said "What if I want to buy it for myself, I like it too".
And I says "That's fine, you just be sure to buy for whatever it costs you, ... mark it up for your profit, ... then I will buy it from you". Dick was a dealer also and I knew he didn't want to buy it to keep.
Mart, I don't know its exact origin or it age but I'm sure it came from a farm house or outbuilding within the local area. And I'm sure its pre-1950, maybe even 20's or 30's.
And I say that because there use to be lots of "country folk" in this area that earned household money by gathering nuts, cracking them out and sellin the nut meats "by-the-quart". Sorta like "egg money", ya know.
Like that song goes …. “a country boy can survive” … by selling nut meats, May Apple root, Ginseng, animal pelts, etc. Of course now days they have a more lucrative “cash crop” with far less work involved.