From your description of the 12-tune selector dial, this sounds like
a Mermod Freres box made in St Croix, Switzerland. If the dial is
circular, within a police-badge shape, that's definitely it.
F.A. Schwarz would have been the importer or sales agent. A lot of
U.S. stores imported Mermod and other Swiss boxes and sold them under
their own names.
Mermod boxes are very good, at least as far as late (post 1880) boxes
go. They are also relatively common. Very ruggedly built, and easy to
work on if needed.
Does yours have a governor fly with a horizontal axle, at the right
side with the spring? That's another sign of the Mermod box, unique
as far as I know.
If yours still has the tune sheet, or you can recognize any tunes,
perhaps you'd share the tune list with us?
Mike Knudsen
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