I have lots of antique music box questions

November 28, 2024 9:02 PM

I am inheriting some antique music boxes (the big kind of cylinder and disc music boxes that would serve as a kind of 19th century jukebox or record player like this and this) and I have all sorts of questions.

If anyone knows the answers to these questions, that's great. Otherwise, if anyone knows the reliable sources where I can find the answers, that's very welcome too.

Here are the things I'm thinking about:

1. They seem delicate. How can they be safely packed? Is it possible to drive them across the country in a uhaul or a car if they are properly protected with packing material? If not, what is a safe way to store them? How finicky are they to temperature and humidity?

2. How can I reliably learn whether they are rare or common? And how much they are worth?

3. Is it possible to, say, go to a maker space and cut new discs or create new cylinders so that new and unexpected music can be played on them?

4. I'm not sure whether I'm going to keep certain ones, donate others to a museum, or potentially sell one or two. What is the best way to do the latter if I decide to? Is it such a random niche thing to the point where getting them to an auction would be the best route?

Thanks for any tips regarding this very specific world I never thought I'd enter.

posted by umbú to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Best answer: I can speak a bit to your question 3, since I've spent some time making custom music discs for old music players, though at a smaller scale than yours. At a makerspace / hobby level, it's generally easier and cheaper to precisely cut plastics compared to metal, so I'd experiment with using a tough but flexible plastic that can be cut on a laser cutter, like acetal (Delrin). I'd carefully measure the spacing of holes on one of the original discs, and use that data to write software to generate a cutting pattern by placing holes according to a music file. Those discs look pretty big; you'd have to make sure the laser cutting facility can handle a piece of material that large. For example, the laser cutter I have access to has a limit of 32 x 20 inches (about 80 x 50 cm). It could probably also be done on a computer-controlled milling machine that uses drill bits instead of lasers to cut the material, though I have less experience with that.

I have no idea how you'd fabricate a cylinder!
posted by moonmilk at 9:55 PM on November 28 [2 favorites]

My family had one like the second - what a joy it was when I was a kid!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:37 PM on November 28 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This spring I bought a stack of organette discs at a thrift store. A handful were quite rare, for the Empire organette. I reached out to a member of The Musical Box Society of Great Britain because he had written an entry about that model in the society's journal. Some of the tunes I had were known to collectors only by catalog listings. My correspondent was very helpful and eventually bought them from me, for a reasonable price. The extreme rarity was a funny thing. There are only a handful of people with functional players for that model of disc, and, being enthusiasts, it's not like they need more stuff.

Anyway, I felt good about saving them from the landfill. The more common discs I plan to put up on ebay eventually. (13-inch Ariston discs, if you're interested.)

There's also The Musical Box Society International. I didn't use their site much because they reserve their publications for members, but they do have a list of dealers and restorers.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:57 AM on November 29

Best answer: My father had several like the second and I've seen the first kind demonstrated at museums. Your question has provoked some further research on my part. For (2) reliable sources where you can find answers, I'd begin at the bottom of the Wikipedia 'Music Box' entry, and (4) this Florida outfit called The Music House looks like it could be a useful resource, as well. (1) I wouldn't hesitate to drive 'em across the country, properly boxed up. I'd guess temperature and humidity will be more an issue to their wooden cabinets than the metal works within (the key elements of which are the spring; the comb; and the pins protruding from the rotating disk, or cylinder). (3) I still don't understand how this metal media was manufactured - were small holes drilled, and the pins inserted? (How else?) For the cylinders especially 3D printing would be the way to do this now; possibly somebody's already written the software to make it easy.
posted by Rash at 11:38 AM on November 29