An 18th century pocket fruitwood screw action nutcracker

An 18th century pocket fruitwood screw action nutcracker, of barrel shape, 7.3cm long.

See Owen Evan-Thomas, 'Domestic Utensils of Wood', pp.126-127, pl.49 for a similar nutcracker described as English 18th century, see also Jonathan Levi 'Treen for the Table', p.158, pl. 12/7, for five similar nutcrackers and he describes them as 'being designed to slip into the pocket, just as some people eat popcorn in cinemas today, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was popular to eat hazlenuts at theatrical performances.'