Inlaid music boxes, musical jewelry boxes, wooden keepsake boxes, and other types of mechanical collectibles are favorite items for some music box and antique collectors. Let's continue to discover the unique history of music boxes and other mechanical music.

The barrel organ was the first form of mechanical music that was made in 1502. Following this, the carillon was the next mechanical music item that was made. This musical instrument plays a musical scale on a set of bells. Initially, they automatically played chimes on the hour, but later when the advantages of the barrel organ were recognized, barrels were pinned with melodies of increasing complexity.

After carillons, attempts were made to produce watches that chimed. Daniel Quare in 1686 made the first chiming watch. The watch struck the hours and quarters or a bell when the stem was pressed and released. Parisian, Juline LeRoy, realized after Quare's invention, that it would be necessary to make the watches thinner. He proceeded to do this by taking the bell out and allowing the hammer to strike the inside of a case. After this, sometime during the second half of the 18th century, he was also credited for the invention of the spiral gong on which hammers strike. It appears as if Breguet made a watch with repeating gongs in 1785.

Soon after the inventions of the carillons and chiming watches, music boxes with combs and cylinders were created. David Tallis in "Music Boxes: A Guide for Collectors" states: "By definition, the musical box is a mechanical instrument in which tuned steel tongues are set in vibration by means of pins set in a rotating cylinder or disc, and the invention was made as a result of all the developments already mentioned. The method of setting up music on a barrel was well known and had been used for many years on barrel organs and carillons, so it was only a short step from the gong in the repeater watch to the tuned steel tooth which could be plucked by a note. The man to whom the invention is attributed is Antoine Favre, and the date of the invention was 1796. The authenticity for this date is taken from the records of the Society of Arts in Geneva for the 15th February, 1796, which reported that Monsieur Favre had found the means of producing a carillon without bells or hammers." As a result of Favre's invention, musical boxes as we know today came into being.

There indeed is much history behind the music box and antique collector collectibles. The next time one looks at an inlaid music box, musical jewelry box, wooden keepsake box, and other types of mechanical music, their unique history can be remembered and appreciated.

Copyright 2006 Monique Hawkins