The history of the music box dates back to 1796, when the Swiss watchmaker Antoine Favre perfected the concept of musical devices of reduced dimensions. The cylinder musical box evolved in the early 19th century from clocks with bell chimes. Instead of bells the music was created by tiny teeth as in the teeth in a comb being 'flicked' by the pins in a rotating cylinder. The early boxes had plain cases, and the spring mechanism which drove the cylinder was wound by a key. This was replaced by a ratchet lever. From 1860 the cases became more ornate with inlays and banding. The movements were enhanced with complications such as bellow, drums and bells, the latter of which were often hidden under decorative butterflies or bees. Another advance was to include additional cylinders, and while the box could only play a single cylinder at one time, the cylinders were more...
242 items found:
These items have been sold, and the description, image and price are for reference purposes only.
You can reduce the number of items displayed by entering a keyword that must be included in the description of the item.
OR
You can restrict the number of items to those sold in recent years. Select which years: