Hi All,  I suspected that you'd get a quick reply to this post about
a Nicole cylinder box.  Since you did not, I'll offer a few comments.

First of all, this is not a Nicole box.  I could see no place on
the bedplate or on the comb where that name was stamped.  Also, it
definitely was not made in 1839.  The most glaring contradiction is the
iron bedplate.  Any box made in 1839 would have had a brass bedplate.

I also noticed that the cylinder shaft seems to be completely rusted
and the cylinder is probably stuck on the shaft.  I'm not certain about
this because only one picture shows it.

The box has had a bad run - hundreds of pins are bent.  With that many
pins down, it would have to be repinned and that alone would cost
around a thousand dollars.

It appears to have no dampers.

The Geneva stop is bent from being overwound -- maybe that's what
caused the run.

Obviously the entire governor is missing -- probably [removed and] used
elsewhere, since the cost to restore the rest of the movement would
surely exceed the value.

The cylinder is installed incorrectly on the shaft so the snail won't
work (even if it wasn't frozen).

As you mentioned, one tooth is missing but probably a few tips are off,
too.

The vinegar and salt used to clean the barrel (or something else) has
leached the zinc out of the brass, leaving it looking red from the
exposed copper.

It appears to have the wrong winding lever and the click on the lever
is installed incorrectly.

Many parts of the bell mechanism are missing or damaged.

As to the value -- you do the math.  The cost to restore this box would
easily exceed 3500 US$.  When you're done, the value of the box would be
far less than that.

Although it is a bell box, it is a rather common 12-tune box so the
music is probably nothing to write home about.  That makes it into what
one might call a "parts box" and the value would be rather nominal.

Other than the bells and possibly the crank arm and spring barrel, the
parts would have to be custom fit if used to repair another box so
selling parts separately wouldn't work too well either.

Sorry for the bad news but that's the situation.

Regards,
Craig Smith