These Victorian Christmas Caroler Musical Water Globes are 8 inches tall and 6 inches across. When you turn the Snow Globes over, iridescent snow falls on a family of Victorian Christmas Carolers singing by the light of a street lamp. The bottom half of the Christmas Musical Snow Globes depict a Christmas Snow Scene that goes all the way around the Snow Globe. The Christmas Snow Scenes consist of a village of snow covered houses and trees attached to the side of the Christmas Snow Globes. There is a small girl carrying a wrapped gift and a horse pulling a sleigh full of toys and gifts standing on a street of snow. When gently wound the Victorian Christmas Caroler Musical Water Globes play “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Select this link to view our collectible Santa Claus gifts.
Note: Do Not Over Wind. Over winding will lock or damage the music box mechanism.
History of the Music Box.
The original snuff box music boxes were tiny containers which could fit into a gentleman’s waist coat pocket. The musical boxes could have any size from that of a hatbox to a large piece of furniture though most were tabletop sized. They were usually powered by clockwork and originally produced by artisan watchmakers.
For most of the 19th century the bulk of music box production was concentrated in Switzerland, building upon a strong watch making tradition. The first music box factory was opened Switzerland in 1815 by Jeremie Recordon and Samuel Junod. There were also a few manufacturers in Bohemia and Germany. By the end of the 19th century some of the European makers had opened factories in the United States.
the cylinders were normally made of metal and powered by a spring. In some of the costlier models, the cylinders could be removed to change melodies, thanks to an invention by Paillard in 1862, which was perfected by Metert, of Geneva in 1879. In some exceptional models there were four springs, to provide continuous play for up to three hours.
The first boxes at the end of the 18th century made use of metal disks. The switch over to cylinders seems to have been complete after the Napoleonic wars. In the last decades of the 19th century however, mass produced models such as the Polyphon and others all made use of interchangeable metal disks instead of cylinders. The cylinder based machines rapidly became a minority.
The term musical box is also applied to clockwork devices where a removable metal disk or cylinder was used only in a programming function without producing the sounds directly by means of pins and a comb. Instead, the cylinder or disk worked by actuating bellows and levers which fed and opened pneumatic valves which activated a modified wind instrument or plucked the chords on a modified string instrument. Some devices could do both at the same time and were often combinations of player pianos and musical boxes, such as the Orchestrion.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th most musical boxes were gradually replaced by Player pianos, which were more versatile and loud and also melodious, when kept tuned and by the smaller gramophones which had the advantage of playing back voices. Series production rapidly disappeared and all the important companies closed their doors. A few of the original ones found new markets.
Located near Lake Neuchatel Reue is one of the last of the Swiss survivors making music boxes of all sizes and shapes, with or without automatons in imitation of models of the previous centuries or in a modern style with clear acrylic sides to see the mechanical operation. They have in a sense branched out widely from their original cylinder offerings since they now also offer traditional looking music boxes with removable metal disks.
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What is a Carol?
A Carol is a song of joy celebrating the great Christian festivals of Easter, Christmas and the New Year. Carols are most often sung at Christmas. The custom of singing carols has been popular in Europe since the Middle Ages. It still forms a special feature of the Christmas season in many parts of the world. Bands of singers go about the streets for several nights before Christmas. They sing in the open air or visit hospitals and homes to cheer the sick and the aged.
After the carolers have finished singing, it is customary for them to receive small gifts of nuts, raisins or Christmas candies. This custom originated in England many years ago.