Unusual Cylinder Musical Box with Bells and 'Garden', c. 1885

Playing eight popular and operatic airs including motifs from "Faust" and "Carmen", with 102 teeth in comb (missing three treble tips), six bells with polychrome butterfly strikers, bird and flower finials flanking an enclosure with flowers and foliage, nickel-plated movement, zither attachment, tune-indicator, change/­repeat and two sets of stop/play controls, in book-matched thuya-veneered case with brass and mother-of-pearl inlay on front and lid, wd. 28 in. (71 cm), cylinder 14 in. (36 cm), movement in playing condition, groups of bent pins, several damaged teeth on the spring barrel, one butterfly replaced, another missing a wing, case missing left-hand divider. – Note: The 'garden' has provision for a moving element, presumably a dancing doll (now absent), controlled via a cam in the governor train. This mechanism has been disabled, but appears to be largely complete. Another curious feature is the additional stop/play control, which may originally have served to silence the bells of bring them into play. Ord-Hume illustrates an organ musical box with a similar layout and an automaton bird in "The Musical Box, a Guide for Collectors", p. 38. – An unusual bell box, with lively, ambitious arrangements, worthy of sympathetic restoration.

布雷克拍品等级是为了方便竞买人判断拍卖品的成色而设置的。布雷克等级用1到6级来标注外观和功能的成色，(从非常好到非常差)。 在目录图册里用括号里的2个数字来表示，前一个数字表示外观成色的级别，后一个数字表示功能成色的级别。如(3/2)表示外观成色是3(满意的)，功能成色2(好)。 成色 定义参照下列标准： 1 - 非常好 (未使用过，没有使用痕迹) 2 - 好 (新，极少的使用痕迹) 3 - 满意的 (普通的使用痕迹) 4 - 及格的 (明显的使用痕迹，某个非主要部件是后配的) 5 - 有缺陷的 (极明显的使用痕迹, 某个主要部件是后配的，功能上有缺陷，需要修理) 6 - 非常差 (严重破损, 缺少重要部件)