La colección de cascapiñones del Museo Etnológico de Navarra “Julio Caro Baroja”

Abstract

The use of the pine-nutcrackers has been established with documentary evidence from the end of the 18. century, although there are few pieces dated from that early age. There is a great number of well manufactured nutcrackers from 1840, as a result of the development caused by the Mendizabal’s “desamortización”. In the middle of the 20th century, these artefacts vanished as a consequence of the emigration from the country to the town.
The great forma diversity can be reduced to three basic typologies: the crackers developed from the pincer used for shoeing horses; the wire-cutters; and the scissors with spring head. The latter was the origine of the shepherd nutcracker, the most widespread typology in the countryside, and which was...