Four Must Have Musical Art Objects for the Music Box and Antique Collector

 by: Monique Hawkins

There are other lovely pieces of musical art objects in addition to ballerina music boxes, music figurines, wooden jewelry boxes, and other types of music boxes and antiques that the music box and antique collector can look for. These are the musical seal, musical watches, early carillon and automaton boxes, and musical watches with singing birds and barking dogs.

Musical Seals

The musical seal is a piece of musical jewelry. The musical movement typically is one with eight notes; therefore, only very simple tunes can be played on them. They also are always made of gold and decorated with enamel and hard stones.

Because musical seals are expensive, the music box and antique collector needs to be very careful they are not purchasing a fake imitation. David Tallis in "Music Boxes: A Guide for Collectors" has this to say: "If you have any doubts about buying a musical seal, look very carefully at the stop-start slide. If the seal is a fake, you can usually see that the hole for the slide cover is cut rather crudely in the gold."

Musical Watches

Musical watches were made for those who loved "show off" accessories in the regency period. The maker of the first musical watch was Philippe Sameul Meylan, who made the watch with a radial disc type movement. The music played by most watches is Swiss traditional tunes such as "Ranz des Vaches". There also are some which play the national anthems of France and England.

Musical watches were made by a number of people such as Le Roy of Paris, Henri Capt of Geneva, and Jean Antoine Lepine of Paris to name a few.

Some musical watches are difficult and expensive to repair. Therefore, the music box and antique collector need to inspect a watch carefully before it is purchased to ensure it is in good working order and not of inferior quality.

Early Carillon and Automaton

A valuable prize for music box and antique collector would be to find a music box, which plays on bells instead of steel teeth. Finding such a box as this would be a rare find. David Tallis states: "Very few boxes appear on the open market and one of the most recent, an enameled gold box containing a carillon musical movement, fetched several thousands pounds in the salesrooms".

Watches with Singing Birds and Barking Dogs

The rarest of most musical art is the musical watch with either a singing bird or barking dog. The singing bird has the mechanisms of the singing bird in addition to normal watch functions. When a special lever is pressed, a bird appears out of the watches side and on its back all the while singing a song.

The barking dog musical watch has an animated dog which barks and is displayed when the watch hours change. This musical watch is quite rare and would be a great addition for the collection of the music box and antique collector.

For the music box and antique collector, there are other interesting and unique pieces of musical art, which can be found in addition to ballerina music boxes, music figurines, and wooden jewelry boxes. Why not expand your collection today?

Copyright 2006 Monique Hawkins