Heinrich C. Preis
Red King

January 2022

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This 9 3/8-inch Red King nutcracker was crafted, or more likely, marketed by Heinrich C. Preis while located in Schweisweiler, West Germany.

It was missing the upper dome and finial from its crown. Since I haven't seen another like it and believe I'm unlikely to, I made the sort of parts I thought it might have had.

Although this nutcracker has things in common with other Preis examples, it departs from the others, in that the beard material isn't doubled. This allows the fabric backing to be seen near the bottom teeth. The jaw is also quite narrow.

Oddly, bamboo skewers were used as the dowels to hold the arms on. Granted, you can buy packages of these, inexpensively anywhere in the world but it would be an odd choice to use for a German-made nutcracker. Upon checking the other Preis-marketed examples I have, I found that they all use bamboo for dowels as well. This detail in combination with others may lend validity to the idea that, at least some (if not all) of the Preis-labeled items might be Asian imports.


Image 1 of 4 Front.
Front


Image 2 of 4 Side.
Side


Image 3 of 4 Back.
Back


Image 4 of 4 Label.
Label


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