$3500 Music Box
I was organizing today and stumbled upon my stuff from my study abroad. I'm still trying to find a way to display it all. I am thinking of a collage of some sort, but don't want it to look cluttered. Anyways, this is beside the point. I want to write about the Reuge catalogue from Zurich, Switzerland.
A little background, I have always wanted a 100% mechanical music box with over 60 prongs/notes. I would love one with over 100, but that would be an unholy price. When I was in Zurich I went to a store called Schweizer Heimatwerk. They had the most beautiful music boxes from Reuge. What I was really impressed with, was they had modern style music boxes. They are usually some sort of hard wood with inlay decoration. The one I fell in love with was a slick glass arch with exposed mechanics and played 3 parts of Canon in D. With the current exchange rate of today, it costs $3445.00.
I don't ever think I will be able to afford that -- but it is a goal in my life. I am kicking myself because in the small tourist shops in Zurich they had smaller music boxes. I found one that played Eidelweiss and was about 6" x 4" solid mahogany with inlay of oak in a fern pattern. It only had about 30 notes, but it did play wonderfully. With the exchange rate at the time, it was $120 -- looking back, I so should have gotten it. Maybe if I go back, I'll find something comparable and correct my mistake.