Music Boxes

Both cylinder and disc-type music boxes found in Canada during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries were manufactured, it would appear, in Europe, particularly in Switzerland and Germany. They were at their most popular during the latter half of the 19th century. Main brand names seen in Canada included Polyphon (Leipzig) and its daughter, Regina Music Box (New Jersey). Music boxes were the first mechanical home entertainment devices available and also were used fairly widely in tearooms and other public places. In 1828 a circus visiting Toronto exhibited the 'Androides, or Grand Musical Machine' from Germany, which may have been an elaborate sort of music box. Music boxes were found in areas as remote as the Yukon, where a 1.8-metre, 33.45-kilogram German-built model was delivered ca 1900. Most cylinder specimens were built between 1840 and 1890, using pinned cylinders which contained 8 or 10 tunes. Disc boxes were developed towards the end of the 19th century, and music for these was stamped on interchangeable metal discs. Though music boxes were able to provide their owners with surprisingly varied programs, the advent of sound recording early in the 20th century destroyed their appeal as purveyors of music. Such boxes may be found still in many private and public collections across the country, however, cherished for their quaintness, the cunning of their mechanisms, their beauty, or their age. Canadian collectors have included Murray Draper of Clinton, Ont; Franklin Foley of Belleville, Ont; Edwin Mirvish of Toronto, and Terry Smythe of Winnipeg. In 1991 Mirvish opened a theatre museum in Toronto with 25 large coin-operated music boxes on display.

Other musical curiosities of the cylinder type include an organ, advertised by F.H. Glackemeyer, which was 'superior in excellence... several instruments of Music perform with it, by self-moving machinery, and when in motion form a complete band in perfect concert' (Quebec Gazette, 13 Jul 1815). Also popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries were the Orchestrion (a mechanically driven piano, cymbals, and drums) and the Polyphon, a large spring-wound music box. Examples of these are housed in the Sounds of Yesteryear Museum in Winnipeg. See also Barrel organs; Instrument collections; Player pianos and nickelodeons.