MBSI is pleased to announce the availability of a new book you may wish
to add to your mechanical music library.  There are many volumes about
the history of musical boxes made in Switzerland, Germany, and France,
but that is not all of the story.

There was also a thriving industry producing quality musical boxes in
the nineteenth century in the Austrian Empire.  Information about those
instruments, particularly for English speakers, has been much harder
to come by.

An important work on this subject, previously only available in German,
has been released in a revised and updated English language edition.
It is "Musical Boxes from Prague and Vienna," by Dr. Helmut Kowar,
issued by the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.

Financial contributions by several organizations have made this book
possible.  The Musical Box Society International and the Musical Box
Society of Great Britain jointly funded the printing cost.

Translation was funded by two foundations, the Franz-Josef Mayer-Gunthof
Wissenschafts und Forschungsstiftung and the Stiftung Familie Philipp
Politzer.

The volume is generously sized at approximately 8-1/4 by 11-3/4 inches,
runs to 246 pages, is generously illustrated and includes an extensive
catalog of known instrument examples.  It is currently available from
the Academy at

https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/musical-boxes-from-prague-and-vienna 

(Note the icon at the upper right of the web page that makes an English
language version of the web page available.)  Dr. Kowar has informed us
that the Academy will be making the book available on Amazon as well.

Clay Witt
President, MBSI

 [ book jacket
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/19/06/05/190605_110408_book.jpg