Croix, Switzerland. Previously, all music boxes were produced through smaller cottage-industry operations using the skills of different craftspeople to assemble a complete product. These early musical contraptions were an expensive luxury item favored by the aristocracy, primarily playing hymns and operatic songs. Later versions added mechanical automata to their complex musical tunes for increasingly magical effects. By the late 1800s, music boxes were built with removable cylinders whose tunes could be changed by replacing specially designed drawers. Finally, in 1885, Paul Lochmann created a music box called the “Symphonion” using a flat metal disc that rotated on a turntable. These metal discs could be easily swapped out, much like a vinyl record. Pop music was suddenly affordable and immediately accessible; within weeks of a Broadway show’s debut, its most memorable musical themes were available on music-box discs. Gustave Brachhausen, foreman of the Lochmann firm, split with the company and created his own business manufacturing the “Polyphon,” perhaps the most famous disc-operated music box. In 1892, Brachhausen moved to the United States where he opened the Regina Music Box Company in Jersey City, New Jersey. Though Regina produced its own mechanical works, Brachhausen still imported discs from the Polyphon factory in Leipzig.
Selected Products
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Roxy Music Box Set
Music Box Victrola
Cylinder Music Box
Dancing Music Box
Music Box 18
Music Box Eidelweiss
Music Box With Light
Music Box Piano
Granddaughter Music Box
Music Box Violin
Music Box Tin
Music Box Women
Sankyo Music Box
Music Box Schmid
Music Box Picture
Kalliope Music Box
Christmas Music Boxes
Music Box World
Music Box Boy
Music Box Kit Make Your Own
Music Box Canon In D
Music Box Balerina
Music Box Anniversary Waltz
Swan Lake Music Box
Music Box Film
Music Box Godfather Theme
Horse Music Box
Music Box Angel
Music Box Mechanism Bird
Music Box Daughter
Music Box Christening
Music Box Anniversary Waltz
Music Box Amelie
Music Box 20
Music Box 36 Note
Music Box Ariel