Mermod Freres Cylinder Music Box: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This music box was made by Mermod Freres in St. Croix, Switzerland, about 1888. It is a cylinder music box, serial #94153, with 8 tunes. This music box has a single-piece comb with 38 teeth. The cylinder is 5-5/8" long. The music box is activated with a crank wound spring.

U. S. Patent #326743, dated September 22, 1885, by C. Henry Jacot, for a safety-check for music boxes.

U. S. Patent #374410, dated December 6, 1887, by Charles H. Jacot, for a motor for music boxes.

U. S. Patent #382292, dated May 8, 1888, by Louis Campiche, for improvements in music boxes.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: ca 1888
• maker: Mermod Freres
• Object Name: music box
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 5 3/4 in x 17 1/4 in x 8 1/4 in; 14.605 cm x 43.815 cm x 20.955 cm
• place made: Switzerland
• ID Number: MI.393522
• accession number: 209041
• catalog number: 393522
• Credit Line: Gift of Mildred Armistead Baker Ruttencutter, in memory of her mother Margaret Armistead Appleton Baker
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.