Collecting Reuge Music Boxes

Anyone who has ever heard an exquisite music box has nearly been to heaven. The sound of a precisely tuned and tempered Swiss music box is like nothing on earth as all collectors already know. The antique music box really captures a glimpse into centuries past in its rich, ringing tones and the twist of a hand. It’s like being transported on a magic carpet to a distant, more exotic time, like nothing else can. 

A music box collector is like any other fine art devotee. The possession is not about the buying cheap of some cultural totem, like the bauble-head doll, hoping to sell later at a huge markup when they are no longer mass produced and thus become “rare.” The music box collector is a sort of addict and connoisseur who treasures the object of his obsession so much because he truly understands the ties it has to our past. A real collector is in love with history itself, not with money or fads. 

There are several excellent companies that manufactured music boxes in the first part of the 19th century, however, Reuge is one of the finest and the best known. They really perfected the cylinder style of box with its ringing, delicate tones. Reuge became a company in 1880 when Albert Reuge opened his first musical workshop in Switzerland. Reuge Music U.S.A. was formed almost a century later in 1993 as a merger of the original company in Switzerland with the Los Angeles-based Sorrento Specialties, which concentrated on the most exquisite Sorrento Italian inlaid music boxes. Today, they produce dancing dolls, singing birds, musical animation and boxes of all kinds that have only become the finer as new technology has incorporated craftsmanship from over 200 years to produce products that should be displayed and enjoyed.