Mandolin playing nutcrackers

[Andrew Lewis]

My wife collects nutcrackers for Christmas, so I thought I'd see if I can find a mando pickin' one for her. Anybody seen one of these or know where I could at least look?

Based on our current collection, some of you would be amazed at the great variety of activities these things are dressed for! My favorite is a chubby fiddler with a huge beer stein at his feet. I call him Mr. Wise.


Edit: Nevermind. I just found nutcrackers.com!

[mandroid]

so you are not going to do Tchaikovsky's Ballet suite, after all?
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Martin Jonas]

Presumably, your fiddler is this (http://www.erzgebirgskunst-shop.de/articles/geiger_-_schunkelnd,45.html) one. I can also offer a piper (http://www.erzgebirgskunst-shop.de/articles/schotte,43.html). No mandolin player, alas.

There's an angel with mandolin, though, either female (http://www.erzgebirge-palace.com/Angels/Angel-Musicians-Mueller/Angel-musician-Mandolin-5-cm-2-inch::1326.html) or male (http://www.erzgebirge-palace.com/Angels/Angel-Musicians-Mueller/Angel-musician-Mandolin-5-cm-2-inch::1316.html). Actually, there are quite a few carved figurines with mandolin, just no nutcrackers.

The area of Germany where this stuff is made, the Erzgebirge, is also the traditional centre of German lutherie and nutcrackers and mandolins would have been made in much the same sort of workshops, possibly even by the same people on a seasonal basis.

Martin

[Andrew Lewis]

Yes! That is the fiddler of which I speak. We've got the piper, too (I'm Scottish).

That's a really interesting tidbit about the German area. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to remember that one.