Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Unusual Artifacts: The Beaver Nut Picks, 1880-1890

Nut Picks
Louis Beaver, 1880-1890
The Victoria & Albert Museum



No, not the Beaver’s Nut Picks. This has nothing to do with Jerry Mathers whatsoever. More’s the pity. I can just picture him saying. “Mom. Hey, mom! Can I get a hunk of nut picks?”

Humor me.

Louis Beaver assembled this boxed set of silver implements: nut picks, nut crackers and grape scissors. It’s likely that Beaver, a watch and clockmaker and jeweler, commissioned this leather and velvet box especially for the purpose of assembling such a set. Dessert implements such as these were considered a suitable birthday gift for a gentleman. Beaver would have presented a shopper with the box, and, then, encouraged the patron to fill it from the small silver items in stock. 

Pretty clever. 

The box also is marked with Louis Beaver’s name and the address of his shop.


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