In 1959 the company made its first wind-up toy with a Swiss musical movement, the Jack and Jill TV Radio. The Patent for this radio was granted in 1963 and was applied to all future musical radios made by Fisher Price. It had an all wood case, decorated with nursery rhyme lithographs and with a carrying handle and moving spring … Read More
Some years ago we acquired a small and somewhat derelict piano orchestrion which, with the aid of Herbert Juttemann’s excellent book ‘Orchestrien aus dem Schwarzwald’ we have been researching.
The instrument has 24 piano notes plus another 8 reiterating notes, a two-beater snare drum and crash cymbal. It was originally weight-driven, though it did not come with one, and the … Read More
We cruised back to the Rhine to continue our journey, and eventually reached Rudesheim. Our group was taken by one of the ubiquitous little “land trains” right up to the gateway to the museum. This is a particularly grand example of a house typical of many we had seen, half-timbered with ox-blood-red beams and many turrets. Called the “Bromserhof”, it … Read More
Quote from a member:
“When I was growing up my step-father, who was an antiques dealer, bought several musical boxes, and at the age of 12 I was considered old enough to play them on my own. I was captivated by the lovely sound they made and I am still captivated. This eventually led me to purchase a Ducommun Girod … Read More
At the suggestion of member Colin Durham, who is also a Friend of the Rye Wurlitzer, we planned an AMBC outing to the October concert.
As the editors remarked in the last edition of “Mechanical Music World”, not least of the pleasures of our hobby is the enjoyment of good company and good food. So it seemed only natural to … Read More
So many different names were used to describe musical boxes that it is sometimes difficult to know exactly what they were about. Some were fairly obvious, such as Longue Marche, but when it is combined with Sublime Harmonie things tend to become more complicated. The principle of the plerodienique is fairly easy to explain but there is not much of … Read More
We enjoyed a very interesting and informative tour (of the London Museum of Water and Steam), the highlight of which was seeing a demonstration of the massive Bull Engine. It differs from a traditional Cornish beam engine with its 70inch steam cylinder inverted above the pump, thus dispensing with the need for a main beam. It is the largest known … Read More
On display were a variety of interesting instruments including a non-organ interloper in the shape of a fine barrel piano (cover picture). This magnificent machine, which has been fully restored, has the legend “Keith Prowse & Co Ltd, London” carved into its front panel, but confusingly , the trade label of “A Tomasso & Son, London, Street Piano Makers” on … Read More
The Christie’s auction catalogue for their sale on December 18th 1986 included lot 107, described as “A weight-driven barrel piano in upright ebony-strung mahogany case with fretted cloth panel and six eight-air barrels in wood cases – 67 inches high, circa 1840”. We managed to secure the lot and have since been trying to establish its provenance and find out … Read More
It was a shock – a great shock – when we finally looked at each other over breakfast and agreed that we should move. When the wagon trains bringing the collection from the UK arrived in Revelstoke, Canada this was to have been its final destinations and yet here we were planning one last move – again.
Ten years have … Read More