Can anyone identify this music box?

[sggrant]

Hi. I was hoping someone here might be able to help me identify a music box. The box is a working 22 inch cylinder music box that possible has European origins. It was, ahem, acquired in Europe during WWI along with several bottles of Napoleon Brandy. Photos are below. I appreciate any help you might be able to provide with identification.

[gramophone78]

Looks like a Swiss music box. However, you may want to ask the guys on the mechanical music forum about this. Although, I'm sure a few of us have some of these in our collection. This forum is for "talking machines" or what some may say the machine that was the down fall of music boxes.... . Good luck in your search.

[sggrant]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not exactly sure of the address of the mechanical music forum you mention. It took me a while to find just anywhere to ask, and what led me here was a similar post someone had made asking if anyone could make an identification.

[gramophone78]

I can't say I've seen a person ask on here regarding one of these. However, you may want to try here... www.mechanicalmusic.org/apps/forums/

Good luck

[Guest]

I'm fairly confident this is a Paillard of Switzerland box. If you google Antique Paillard Cylinder Music Boxes, you should find heaps of images to compare your music box to.
And you are correct as I can recall at least 2 other enquiries about music box identification in the past.

[FloridaClay]

Your box is Swiss. The places to look for identification of the particular maker are the “tune sheet,” the paper inside the lid listing the songs on the box, and sometimes firm logos will be stamped onto some of the metal parts. Unfortunately some areas of your tune sheet where some helpful information might have been are torn away. However a reference book I have shows this style tune sheet was used by the firm of Paillard, Vaucher & Fils. That firm was located in Sainte-Croix, a Swiss Alpine village that was a center for music boxes. The firm was active from the 1830s and went out of business in 1885. Your box is of the type that was likely made toward the end of their existence.

And yes, the advent of phonographs did spell the end for serious music boxes. There were some attempts to combine them, the most famous being the Reginaphone, but it was not enough to save the industry and music boxes have mostly become a footnote to the history of mechanical music apart from the mass produced cheap movements used in trinkets. There is one firm, Rouge, still surviving in Sainte-Croix, that makes some quality boxes. http://www.reuge.com/home

May I take the opportunity to also put in a shameless plug for The Musical Box Society International, of which I am a member.

http://www.mbsi.org/

There are chapters located around the country and meetings are great places to go to learn about all kinds of mechanical music machines. Our members collections include music boxes as well as wind-up phonographs, band organs, orchestrions, player and reproducing pianos, etc. There is also a fine sister organization in the UK, The Musical Box Society of Great Britain. http://www.mbsgb.org.uk/
Clay

[HisMastersVoice]

However a reference book I have shows this style tune sheet was used by the firm of Paillard, Vaucher & Fils.

I agree, the crank style is indicative of P.V.F.

You have the important part of the tune sheet, so you are well ahead of the game.

[JohnM]

All cylinder music boxes are Swiss, with the exception of Rzebitczek (sp?), who was Czech.

[estott]

It looks like a typical late 19th C. Swiss box, most probably by Palliard. Boxes like this were aimed at the middle class market- although they were not cheap Palliard was able to use many mass produced interchangeable parts and keep the prices down. Their really cheap boxes skipped the fine wood veneer and inlay used on your box in favor of a painted finish with decals- and often had popular songs instead of operatic selections.

Your box was also made for the English speaking market- the tune sheet is is English as are the controls.

[FloridaClay]

The Paillard family was widely involved over many years in music box making in Sainte-Croix in various firms involving combinations of clan members related by blood or marriage. Paillard-Vaucher & Fils, who made your box, was founded by Auguste Paillard-Vaucher in the 1830s. The “fils” (son) was Arthur Paillard who succeeded his father Auguste in the business.

During the heyday of music boxes, Britain and America were important markets for Swiss music box makers, thus English language usage on the boxes. Many of them had agents or sales rooms in Britain and America.

If you get really curious about the industry, especially as it centered around Sainte-Croix, an excellent book to read is “The Music Box Makers: The History of Music Box in Sainte-Croix,” by Jean-Claude Piguet. For an overall view, one of the very best is “The Musical Box: A Guide for Collectors” by Arthur W.J. G. Ord-Hume. You will find a complete copy of your box’s tune sheet on the lower-left corner of page 323 of the latter. You are fortunate that the majority of yours is still there, as tune sheets are often missing and some 100+ year-old melodies are now hard to identify. The card stock used to make them often becomes brittle with age and they just disintegrate.

If you were a person who did not play an instrument and wanted music in your home before the phonograph was invented a good way to do it was buy a music box and many thousands of people did.

In any event, I hope you enjoy your music box, and who knows maybe you too will catch the music box collecting bug. Just don't be like me and collect bunches of things. It can get expensive and very crowded!

Clay