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The Sound of Mechanical Music with Price Guide by Jack Tempest

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The Sound of Mechanical Music with Price Guide by Jack Tempest Musical Here we have a typical Victorian cylinder A closer look at the ‘Kalliope’s’curious musical box of average size. horse-racing game which added visual interest to the aural accompaniment! The Sound of Mechanical Music with Price Guide by Jack Tempest Mark Singleton is a keen collector of mechanical music antiques. He is pictured Many collectors of bygone items enjoy finding examples of bygone musical boxes. These here with an early hand-wound organette, date back mainly to the Victorian era and came in various types, the commonest being the but he is particularly interested in turn-of- table-top examples with their mechanisms usually housed in ornamentally-veneered the-century disc operated musical boxes. wooden cabinets. The sizes varied according to the complexity of their mechanical contents usually depending upon the size of the instrument’s cylinder. They mostly tended to be Continental products and their industry was mainly in Switzerland. Cylinder musical movements varied in size depending upon the type of musical box concerned. Novelty miniature movements were available designed to be hidden away in French sewing boxes or in the once fashionable pocket snuff boxes. The larger table-top examples offered room for bigger mechanisms. The larger cylinder boxes offered louder and more interesting performances. The rotating cylinders were pinned according to the notes required to be selected from the tuned teeth of the steel comb that picked out the required music. The size of the boxed examples allowed the use of a larger spring wound clockwork motor for increased performance. Classical cylinder musical boxes were more expensive than the cheaper novelty kind which generally produced shorter programmes of popular melodies which were naturally less expensive to buy. Their values today are generally much higher as antique values and depend upon their state of preservation and quality performance rating. Some instruments included extra sounds in their design - bells were very popular, often accompanied by a mechanically activated snare drum or even a small organette. Some had a gadget which could turn the instrument’s normal sound into a performance imitating the playing of a zither. Most serious collectors prefer the well produced examples in which the designers had concentrated upon the best classical performances and left out any added instruments. The Nicole-Freres company was just one of the Swiss manufacturers that produced the best classical music boxes. In 1885 the traditional musical-box industry was to give way to the appearance of a new form of instrument introduced by a German manufacturer Paul Lochmann, who discovered an alternative way of creating music from a tuned steel comb. He invented a perforated metal disc system to replace the pinned cylinder. Each disc could be programmed with a melody of reasonable length and the system would allow the collection of more easily stored discs each offering a different melody. So the owner had a greater choice of musical entertainment which would be easier to store than a collection of cumbersome brass cylinders. These new instruments he named ‘Polyphons’ and there were horizontal and vertical examples. The vertical sort were more popular because they took up less room and could be placed against a wall. The commonest disc size, and most popular, was 19 5/8th inches. There were larger and smaller sizes. These could be had with a penny-slot mechanism which sold one performance for one penny. It was an ideal way of selling music in public houses and other places frequented by the public. The new ‘Polyphon’ was the forerunner to the ‘Juke Box’ of latter years! Other such rival models This is a standard 19 5/8ths disc ‘Polyphon’. were to appear such as the German ‘Symphonion’, and the American-made ‘Regina’. The base is not original - the instruments The popularity of these disc-machines proved a serious threat to the Swiss musical box were sold with or without bases. The bases industry who tried to enter the disc-box competition with their ‘Stella’ disc-player and are really necessary to help with the storage of the family’s growing metal disc collection! other makes, but they never fully recovered their position as world-manufacturers of ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 08 Musical musical boxes! Time was on the way for a change and the invention in such surviving antique musical boxes. I am interested in musical of the gramophone by Edison put an end to musical boxes as source boxes in general as well as other mechanical treasures but prefer to of home entertainment. collect interesting disc-operated items.” Mark Singleton, a businessman from the North-East of England is Mark’s collection includes ‘Polyphons’, Symphonions’, and a very a well known collector of antique musical boxes, the disk-style rare ‘Lochmann’ upright disk player which includes a mechanical coin-operated examples in particular. His advice to collectors is for horse-racing game. “This is a fine piece of furniture, a top quality them to study books on the subject, attend as many auction sales product that plays well and also offers a chance to gamble on the featuring musical boxes as possible, and befriend a keen collector. horses!” he added with a smile. “I do visit auction sales around the To aid this advice he also points out that the newcomer should country but always look for something out of the ordinary. I make become a member of the Musical Box Society of Great Britain sure that the music plays well and listen for faults. Many can be from where he can obtain good advice, and meet like-minded restored fairly easily and once I am happy that this is possible I then enthusiasts with practical experience in the subject. “I have been take part in the bidding!” collecting for several years now and must admit that membership The Musical Box Society of Great Britain. Details of club activities of the MBSGB taught me a lot about the hobby and also introduced and of membership can be found on www.mbsgb.org.uk me to many interesting enthusiasts who taught me a lot and gave me plenty of useful advice and help in any restoration problems that I came across,” Mark pointed out. “In this way one can meet experts who specialise in sorting out any problems that can pop up Novelty horizontal disk machine designed with Christmas interest - a Christmas Tree could be placed in the cast-iron holder and This is an early novelty disk musical revolved when the music played! box with figures that dance to the music. Its mechanism is hand-wound. ‘Kalliope’ were responsible for this larger disc machine which incorporated a mechanical horse-racing game in its base. A rare item! Inside this ‘Kalliope’, behind the disc we can see the double vertical combs that provide The ‘Polyphon’ company made the first disk the music with 12 bells to add to a recital. This disc-playing musical box is a German boxes and this is a de-luxe 19 5/8ths model Note the large clockwork spring mechanism. ‘Kalliope’, a copy of the earlier ‘Polyphon’. fitted with an ornamental leaded-window. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 08 Musical 20 1 15 10 Nicole Freres, Swiss walnut 5 musical box, single cylinder Paillard & Co Bells, Drum and comb, playing eight airs, Late 19thC six air musical and Castanets in Sight 12 air Large 19thC Swiss musical printed/handwritten label, No box, 19.75in cylinder, lever musical box, 32in wide. box playing on twelve airs. 32051, 51.5cm. Sworders, action wind, compartment Gorringes, Lewes. Jun 06. Wotton Auction Rooms, Stansted Mountfitchet. Apr Late 19thC walnut cased decorated with 3 gouache on HP: £2,100. ABP: £2,470. Wotton under Edge. Feb 08. 06. HP: £1,050. ABP: £1,235. Polyphon, Nicoles Freres, paper scenes of Geneva, HP: £1,260. ABP: £1,482. ‘Penny in the Slot’ mechanism, label: Fabrique de Genéve 11 17 24in discs, 6ft 9in high. Spiraux Metalliques, marq- Gorringes, Lewes. Mar 06. uetry inlaid rosewood case, 21 HP: £9,500. ABP: £11,174. 34in. Gorringes, Lewes. Oct 07. HP: £3,100. ABP: £3,646. 2 Mahogany cased symphonium, 16 58.5cm wide, 52 x 30cm discs, Walnut table polyphon a/f. Rosebery’s, London. Mar 06. HP: £1,050. ABP: £1,235. playing 9in tin discs. Stride 19thC Swiss ten air six bells & Son, Chichester. Sep 05. 6 in sight musical box, 11in 22 HP: £2,000. ABP: £2,352. cylinder, rosewood case with Large Orchestrion cylinder Prices quoted are actual floral musical trophy inlaid music box in rosewood case. hammer prices (HP) and the medallion, 24ins. Gorringes, Crows, Dorking. Apr 04. HP: Approximate Buyer’s Price. Lewes. Mar 05. HP: £1,250. Late 19thC walnut cased £2,700. ABP: £3,175. (ABP) Includes an average ABP: £1,470. Polyphon, Nicole Freres premium of 15% + VAT. Nicole Freres Regina Poly- 7 17 penny-in slot operation, phon. Crows, Dorking. Apr thirty two 20in discs, 7ft.1in. 04. HP: £1,010. ABP: £1,188. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 04. 23 HP: £3,700. ABP: £4,352. 3 19thC polyphon by Schutzmark, approx 28 discs. Nicole Freres musical box, Crows, Dorking. Apr 04. HP: 12 No. 24691, key wind, playing £1,200. ABP: £1,411. six airs, rosewood lid inlaid Polyphon coin-operated disc German 17.25in Kalliope musical trophies, 46cm wide, musical box, prob. by Nicole disc musical box, periphery cylinder 27.4cm. Sworders, Freres, playing 19.75in discs, drive movement playing on Stansted Mountfitchet. Feb mahogany cabinet, metal one base and 2 treble combs, 07. HP: £980. ABP: £1,152. label reading ‘Drop a Penny 19thC Nicole Freres ‘Penny coin operated mechanism, in the Slot, Nicole Freres in the Slot’ Polyphon, 19.625in walnut upright case with Leipzig’, c1900, 50.5in high, 24 metal disks, twin 7.5in single glazed door, 35in.
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