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A tin-plate musical box, Swiss, circa 1835, image 1
A tin-plate musical box, Swiss, circa 1835, image 2
A tin-plate musical box, Swiss, circa 1835, image 3
Various Properties
Lot 187

A tin-plate musical box,
Swiss, circa 1835,

15 September 2021, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £510 inc. premium

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A tin-plate musical box, Swiss, circa 1835,

indistinctly marked Denkmal der Schweizer vom 10 August 1792, in Luzern orrichtet, the 7cm cylinder playing four operatic airs including one from Bellini's 'Il Pirata' and another by Rossini, the movement with horn cover and mounted in tinplate case with transfer decoration and control buttons at the front and side,
4in (10cm) wide

Footnotes

Provenance:
From paperwork accompanying this musical box, it was sold as lot 180 at Sotheby's on the 29th May 1961.

The air from 'Il Pirata' provides a terminus post quem for this musical box of 1827, the year in which the opera premiered in the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

The lid depicts the Lion of Lucerne, a monumental stone sculpture designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen, hewn into sandstone quarry near Lucerne. The lion commemorates the massacre of the Swiss Guards during the Insurrection of 10th August 1792, at the height of the French Revolution.

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