Mechanical Music Auction Coming Up At Christie's
By Beatrice Robertson
To the music box collectors:
If we don't have anything on this Digest, it is our own fault. We surely can find something of interest to share with the group. For those of you who have not bought at auction, it is an interesting experience. There is a mechanical music auction coming up at Christie's in London Wed. Dec. 13. I have had pretty good luck buying at auction, even sight unseen. It helps to know the people in the auction house, which has been made possible through attendance at the last two MBSI national meetings. However, both Christie's and Sotheby's will provided condition reports. It is still up to the bidder to know what he's looking at, and to be cautious about prices, but there are many items that show up in auctions from these two houses that are difficult, if not impossible to find by other means. I have found the condition reports to err on the conservative side, if anything- example: I asked about a particular box last sale, and got the reply "don't bother!" After talking to someone who attended the sale, the comment was accurate - the box was BAD!
This particular sale has a number of radios and phonographs, as well as cylinder and disc music boxes. and assorted oddities like a Triola which is a 25 note mechanical zither played with a roll. It is being sold with 19 rolls, and there are 20 additional rolls. Also included are a few bird boxes, mostly ordinary, but oneBrugier with a clock in the front. Among the cylinder boxes are MANY Nicole boxes, including overture, forte-piano, and variation; several bell boxes, a REVOLVER box by Paillard (the mechanism looks like an accident waiting to happen, by design); an organ clock, necessaire and automata, and interchangeable cylinder boxes. Disc boxes include a 15 3/4" Fortuna on a base, assorted Symphonion and Polyphon boxes, and the music box part of the organ player Polyphon "Savoyard".
If anyone is interested in additional information, or would like me to do a short report on prices after the sale, just let me know. There really are things going on in the music box side of mechanical music!
Beatrice Robertson
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(Message sent Wed 6 Dec 1995, 14:59:07 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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