This music box was made in Switzerland around mid-19th century. It belonged to Lina Chappell, a member of the Miller family. She was a pianist in Dorchester, Dorset, during the early 20th century.
The invention of the music box is thought to date back to the Swiss watchmaker Antoine Favre, who in 1796 invented a musical watch. It was around this time the movement for cylinder music began. His invention continued to evolve and in the early 19th century music started being manufactured into jewellery boxes, as they are still made today. Perhaps due to their success, it wasn’t long until boxes started being produced solely for playing music, often capturing famous classical songs in a portable way.
In the late 19th century, the music box business in Switzerland was booming! So much so that this music box ended up all the way in Dorset with a local pianist, and subsequently donated to Dorset Museum & Art Gallery.
This music box has a metal cylinder with small bumps, which catch on the metal comb to create sounds. The positioning of the bumps will determine the notes played and the song the box produces. The mechanism is activated by a lever, which connects to a spring in order to rotate the cylinder and sound the music.
Not only audibly but visually entertaining too, you can watch the mechanism working as it plays its song, cylinder turning and decorative butterflies hitting the bells that are housed inside.
The plaque on the lid was affixed soon after the box arrived at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, in memory of the previous owner, Lina Chappell. From looking at correspondence between the donor and museum, it is likely that the plaque was made by Dorset sculptor Mary Spencer Watson.
Musical boxes would have been a great way of listening to music in your own home, without the need for a live musician; especially in a time when recorded music had not yet emerged. The popularity of the boxes eventually declined with the advancement of musical technology, although to this day the experience of listening to their unique sounds remains just as joyful.
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