This model of King nutcracker was made by both VERO and later, Christian Ulbricht, using VERO's tooling and parts after VERO ceased operations. This model represents a middle offering, between the plainer and fancier kings made by these companies.

After German reunification, Christian Ulbricht moved the company formerly owned by his father, Otto, back to Seiffen from Bavaria and reclaimed the family's business. Ulbricht then continued producing many of the VERO models and introduced new designs based on the VERO composite bodies. Ulbricht also transitioned some of the VERO composite designs to wood bodies.

Under the base of this King, is the faint 1 3/16-inch dia. circular outline of what might have been one of the late GDR Expertic approval labels. These were white with green lettering around a small red square in the middle. There was also a smaller version of this label. You find this particular Expertic label on Erzgebirge nutcrackers made just prior to reunification. There's also some evidence that Ulbricht might have continued to use these labels into the early 1990s. Afterwards, Christian Ulbricht nutcrackers had their own gold-colored, oval label.

This 14-inch King nutcracker has the standard VERO composite body and head. A VERO catalog picture shows a curved lever on this model. I've also seen examples with curved levers. This example has a straight jaw lever. The straight lever might identify this nutcracker as an Ulbricht but if it had an Expertic GDR label, this nutcracker could also have been made while VERO was still in operation.

This is also one of the designs Ulbricht ultimately transitioned to a wood body and head. These can be easily differentiated due to having fewer teeth than the molded versions which were otherwise identical in appearance.

This specimen was in overall poor condition. It was missing both eyebrows, half a mustache and one of the beads from its crown. The base was cracked in two places and it looked like it may have been in a very damp environment at some time. This caused loss of paint in multiple places. Consequently, it was necessary to match every paint color originally on the wood parts of this nutcracker.

For uniformity of appearance, I replaced not only the missing mustache and eyebrow parts, but also the one remaining mustache half, with hand-modeled epoxy putty facsimiles.