Hi folks,  Now that the dust has settled and we know the details of the
upcoming sale of items from the Baldwin Collection, I would like to
comment on donating in general and mechanical music in particular.

The general practice of Museums is to accept donations only with the
understanding, and legal permission, to do with them as they see fit
and necessary for the good of the entire collection.  This often means
selling items to provide funds to preserve and repair other, perhaps
more special, donated items.  This is the practice of the MBSI Museum,
although it is rare that anything really is sold, and much thought and
discussion is given to each item before they are offered for sale.

There are a very few museums that _never_ sell anything (the term is
deaccession).  Some of the National Museum system and Smithsonian are
in this category, I think.  However, that does not mean that the items
will ever see the light of day again, or that anyone will ever have the
opportunity to view them, forget hear them.

Those of us who have substantial collections have all done a fair
amount of soul searching about what to do with our collections when we
are no longer able or around to care for them.  One of the long time
MBSI members came up with one of the more outstanding ideas I ever
heard.  When someone expresses a particular interest in an item in the
collection, their name is written on a tiny piece of paper and placed
INSIDE the instrument somewhere.  When the time comes to disperse the
collection, the names on these notes are contacted first, and offered
the item.

The prices can be handled all sorts of ways: by appraisal (by a mech-
anical music expert, not an antique dealer!!), by documentation kept up
to date by the owner, or by some other means.  In my case, I update my
prices in my computer list once a year.  Selected pieces will be
offered to the MBSI Museum, but only with the stipulation that they
will be heard.

I have a real personal thing about the fact that mechanical music is
*not* furniture! It was meant to play music.  The rest of the collection
will be sold, probably at auction, with the advertising centered on
the mechanical music organizations.  And some of the proceeds will be
donated back to these organizations to provide funds to care for the
donated items.

The important thing is that we all understand both the need to donate
items to these special museums, but also the need for the museums to
have the ability to generate funding to preserve and restore the col-
lections in their care.  As the private museums are sold, it becomes
increasingly important that the public and organization museums be able
to show and play mechanical music for future generations.  Some of the
ways we can help are to offer temporary exhibits from our collections,
get active on boards, and *educate* about mechanical music any time you
get the opportunity!

Beatrice Robertson