In a message outside MMD, I received a response to my earlier posting,
so I figured I would share the additional information that was requested.
The first question asked was how the box was dated, its current
whereabouts, etc.

The box was the property of a local museum, which is located in an old
house here in New York City.  The house was only occupied by a single
family, from its construction to its end as a private home.  Afterwards,
it was turned into a museum, and all its original belongings remained
intact, with a fair amount of documentation about them.  The music box
"disappeared" in the 1960s.

Upon a recent visit to the museum, the curator showed me the
documentation they had on the box.  It identified the box as a gift
(a party favor) from the Prince of Wales to the six daughters of the
household, who had attended a ball in honor of the Prince.  The ball was
held in 1860, hence my guess at the date of the box.  The museum has two
photos of the box, taken in the 1940s.

The second area of the message pertained to the use of characteristics of
the box itself to assist in identifying the boxes maker.  Since we don't
have the box, that isn't an option.  If I can get a good copy of the
close-up photo, perhaps I can share that through the MMD web site, as it
does depict some interesting inlay work.

> As for the approach of who made a box with a particular tune, that is a
> dead end.  No particular maker had any exclusive use or rights to any
> certain melodies.

The only reason I hope that such a tune might be a clue, is that it
appears the box was probably made for this particular event (the ball I
mentioned earlier).  Since the tune is not your typical operatic air,
hymn or popular tune of the day (I assume) perhaps this might help with
the identification of the box.  Other tunes it played were "The Blue
Danube Waltz" and an unspecified number of operatic airs.  I'm going to
see if I can track down more information on the ball, and see if any
newspaper accounts describe it.

> Good luck!  I would certainly be interested to hear more about this.

My hope is that we can come up with a good guess as to who might have
made such a box and some day help the museum to acquire a box of similar
manufacture.

Thanks for your interest, and I'll continue to update people via MMD,
should any further details emerge.

Bob Fitterman