1895 Capital Cuff Music Box W/4 Interchangable Cuffs Outstanding; Sounds Great




Item History & Price

Information:
Reference Number: Avaluer:4376238Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Brand: Capital
Original Description:

Not even officially summer, and already it's 98° in the shade. Man, it's steamy here. Hand me another mojito, Bertrand. If I'm going to pass out, I don't want it to be from the heat.
Well, it's Memorial Day weekend here in the USA, so I'm firing up the grill and bidding farewell to cooler weather with an exceptional assortment of mechanical, technical and musical antiques. If you're like me, and you enjoy surrounding yourself with alluring, ancient and entertaining gadgetry (an...d even if you're not like me, and you don't), I suspect you'll find something in the line-up this week that you can't live without. You can also click this link to quickly add and then save me to your favorite seller list and Ebay will automatically send you updates when I put similar new auctions online.  
Here's an outstanding and eminently collectible Capital Cuff music box manufactured in New Jersey by F.G. Otto in the late 1800's. Unlike conventional disc music boxes, whose round music sheets lie flat on a bed, with a spring motor advancing their punched notes over pinned rollers and a comb, the Capital music box uses a punched metal music sheet rolled into a tapered cuff that revolves over the musical movement in the manner of a cylinder music box, but with intermediary pins between the music sheet and the comb, as you can see in the video below. Despite the design differences between the Capital "Cuff" box and the Regina disc box -- all of which were no doubt undertaken by Otto to circumvent disc music box patents held by Regina in the US (and by Polyphon abroad), Otto was nonetheless the subject of a barrage of litigation initiated by Regina, forcing Otto to cease production of the Capital Cuff box just a year or so after it had begun. Consequently, Capital Cuff music boxes are few and far between, and Capital Cuff music boxes that still work are even more uncommon.
This Cuff box -- a Style A -- still works great and sounds great and its condition is excellent throughout.  The cabinet finish is original and silky smooth, with no alligatoring, no significant blemishes of any type. The crank is also original and signed, as you can see, and the crank escutcheon is original and still in place. The artwork on the underside of the lid is original and stain free, with no rips or other damage.  All four cuffs that are included with the box are in excellent condition, with some scattered paint deterioration, but much less than you typically see. There's a soldered repair in the spring barrel, but the movement is mechanically sound and working well. The notes are bright and clear, the cuffs play through at a steady speed, there are no broken teeth, and there's minimal extraneous noise, as you can hear in the video. The sole anomaly -- and it's been like this as long as I've had the box, through hundreds of plays -- is a brief whirr from the governor -- like a creaky door being opened -- when a cuff comes to its end. If there's a secret to silencing it, I don't know what that secret is.
The cabinet key is present, it doesn't turn the lock tumbler.  Nonetheless, a wonderful instrument in all respects.
Please review the photographs and video and consider them an integral part of the description.  
Shipping weight approximately 40 lb.

That's about it. I will carefully prep it forshipping and pack it carefully and properly. I've been shippingfragile automatic instruments or years, and I know howto get them to you safely. Buyer prepays and includes shipping. Auction participants with no prior feedback should contact me before placing a bid. Capital Cuff Music BoxVideo will open in a new windowUsing the mobile app? Copy this link into your browser:

Bidders Outside The USA Please Note: There's a glitch in ebay's USA site software that's preventing my Ebay Store from being exported to several non-USA ebay sites. Here's the workaround. If you click on my feedback score, you'll be taken to my feedback page. There, on the right side of the page, you'll see a link that allows you to "view items for sale." If you click that link, you'll see everything that I currently have listed. Alternatively, if you click my seller name, "firebottles, " you'll be taken to my seller page, where you can also view everything that I currently have listed. I apologize for the glitch. I'm trying to get it resolved with ebay.



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