Music Box – Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Blog – To me they are the sound of spring.

Music Box - vincentfreemanantiques.com


 

I remember the first music box that I ever owned. It was a wonderful wooden box with very elaborate inlay. Inside it there was a mystifying mechanical device. When I set it in motion, however, the most harmonic music filled the air. I can close my eyes, even today, and hear the music from that music box. If you have interest in music boxes, you can visit this site for their history:  Antique Music Box.

Visiting a home in southern Indiana, I was looking for things to sell in my antique shop, but little did I know that a music box was in my future. I had looked through the house and made offers on several things when my eyes lit on this fantastic box sitting on a table. At the time, I wasn't sure what it was so I asked. The lady, with pride in her voice, said it was a music box that had been passed down to her. She knew I wanted to hear it so she very gently started the box and I was mesmerized. I was hooked and knew that if it were possible I would be purchasing it before leaving the house. Knowing very little about these boxes at the time, I could have easily been taken.

I asked her if it was for sale and her answer was yes for $500. At that time in my life, that was a lot of money. But no matter, I wanted it and the price wasn't astronomical, so into my truck it went. If my memory serves me right, it played a metal cylinder that had pins that struck a keyboard which produce the sound. This cylinder held ten songs and each song was more beautiful than the one before it.

Later, after I did some research, I found that earlier music boxes used disks while the later ones had cylinders. By the end of the 19^th century, however, mass produced music boxes with interchangeable metal disks began to take the place of the boxes with cylinders. The music boxes seemed to fade away as pianos increased in popularity. What I didn't know was that these music boxes came in all sizes, some as small as a kitchen match box and other ones that could fill a medium sized room. To see some exceptional examples of music boxes, visit this site – M.S. Aru Antiques.

Paul Harvey used to say “Now for the rest of the story.” Before putting it up for sale, I wanted to have that music box in my house for a while so that I could enjoy it. But that caused a strange ending to my ownership of the box. I had a woman visit my house. She spotted my music box and asked to have it played, which I was more than happy to do. After listening to the songs, she said “Would you take $5000 for the box?” I thought she was kidding so I said “sure.” To my surprise, I realized I no longer owned it when she said “SOLD"

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