How music did the rounds
- Source: Global Times
- [09:10 August 27 2010]
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Photos: Courtesy of Luo Zeling
According to a legend, more than 200 years ago, a Swiss watchmaker named Antoine Favre was making pocket watches in his workshop on a mountain. He became impatient with his work and, in a fury, threw some half-finished watches and metal pieces down the mountainside, only to be taken aback by the cute tinkling melodies they produced as they tumbled.
This may or may not be true but certainly Favre is credited with the invention of the music box, the antique wind-up system that provided often beautiful music at home for the middle classes of Europe. And certainly Favre made the earliest music box in the world.
It is a crown-shaped seal standing 5 centimeters made of pure gold in 1796 and now it can be seen at the Shanghai Gallery of Antique Music Box and Mechanical Works at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
Nearly 200 antique music boxes and automata are on display, in a variety of shapes and styles, from a miniature key shape to a 2-meter wood cabinet, and from a touch sensitive musical chair to a figurine that plays a harp. The exhibition is like a time tunnel to the palaces of Europe and aristocratic society in the 18th and 19th centuries.
There were two types of music boxes: cylinder-based music boxes and metal disc boxes. The inner workings of some music boxes were so complicated that they took at least six months to make.
For the music box type known as the "Mechanical Singing Birds," for example, the creators tested stuffed bird specimens to ensure they would last as long as the rest of the mechanics - 50 years or so.
Until the dawn of the pianola player piano and the gramophone, music boxes were the home entertainment systems for the middle and upper classes.
"It's impossible to find two absolutely identical handmade music boxes, even though they were made from the same design and from the same materials," said gallery manager Luo Zeling. This is one of the charms of antique music boxes unlike identical mass-produced pieces.
"The lengthy and intricate manufacturing process reflects a reverence toward manual craft which has been lost in today's fast-paced society," commented Li Ting, a visitor to the gallery.
All the exhibits are from the private collection of a Japanese collector, Yamada Harumi, who owns some 2,000 rare music boxes. She wants to ensure the knowledge and history of these quaint pieces is passed on from generation to generation.
Many Chinese people are only familiar with the mass-produced ballet girl music boxes but the items on display here are far removed from the ballet girl. "I have never seen so many exquisite antique music boxes before. They are more than music boxes, but an elite artistic craft worth collecting," said Li Xueping, a visitor to the gallery.
