How many come up for sale each year?

About eleven reach the market on Sellingantiques in a year, spread across some thirty-five different dealers. No single dealer defines the category, so the descriptions vary in what they choose to tell you.

What does the number of airs mean?

An air is one melody pinned on the cylinder. Titles state the count, and sampled boxes run four, six, eight, ten, twelve and twenty. The lower counts spread through the modest and middle listings. Ten, twelve and twenty gather toward the top.

Why is circa 1875 quoted so often?

It recurs across dozens of titles, making it the most quoted date in the archive. It reads as a shared convention among dealers for a mid-to-late Victorian box. Only 23 of 94 listings carry a clean year at all. The rest sit under Victorian or "19th Century". The dated field stretches from 1750 to 1950, but those ends are single outliers.

Which case timbers turn up?

Rosewood and walnut lead, with burr yew, amboyna, coromandel and beech also named in titles. Inlay and marquetry are cited on the better examples, while the cheaper listings often leave the case undescribed.

Are all of them cylinder boxes?

The bulk are. A pinned cylinder and comb is the standard mechanism across the category. A small number are not: a Symphonion, a box with eleven discs, an Austrian enamel and ormolu piano box, a singing bird box, a 1950s juke box. Each appears once.

What do bells add to a box?

Bells sit above the bedplate and are struck as the cylinder turns, often by figural strikers. Titles describe three bells, six bells, "bells in view" and "bells in sight". They are the commonest extra, in eight titles, and once combined with drums. Boxes with them sit in the upper half of the range.

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Antique Music Boxes

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A pinned brass cylinder plucking a tuned steel comb inside a wooden case, wound by key or lever, playing a stated number of airs for the Victorian drawing room.