瑞士滚筒留声机"C. Sivan", 1892年

The ingenious Swiss pioneer Casimir Sivan, a watchmaker in Geneva, designed a number of different inventions, such as Swiss Patent No. 4918 from 21 Febr. 1892 for a "Talking Pocket Watch", for which he specially built this "Le Bijou Phonograph". This phonograph has a clockwork motor and announces the time. The paper membrane of the soundbox bears the handwritten date 'Décembre 1892' and Sivan's signature. The original disc (2 1/6 in. / 55 mm) is signed too and has a few cracks as shown. – Casimir Sivan was also the 1st Swiss movie maker: 3 titles from summer 1896 (!) are known to exist today. In March 1895 (!!) Sivan became the 1st Swiss concessionaire of Thomas A. Edison's "Kinetoscope" and "Kinetophone". – Sivan also designed and patented 35mm movie cameras and projectors ... and some other "Micro-Phonographs" like the one offered here, which is prototype "No. 3" as marked. – A giant rarity in the history of the phonograph and motion picture industries!