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Swiss Gramophones
Origin: Switzerland Ste-Croix
I ll bet you ve never seen this model before, it s not listed anywhere in the reference books, possibly because it was a prototype, or experimental model. To begin with, the movement is a Miraphone, made by the renowned firm of Mermod Freres in St. Croix, Switzerland. They produced watches, cylinder music boxes, and disk boxes under the name of Mira and Stella. At the end of the music box era, in a desperate attempt to maintain sales, they produced combination machines such as this: As did Regina, Polyphon and others. Miraphones were aimed squarely at the U.S. market, where they had sold their wonderful Miras and Stellas with great success, exporting only the mechanical movements, with their importer, Jacot & Sons of New York, arranging to have cases locally made. This was a method of minimizing the high import duties of the day. Given the background history, this machine is unique, in that: - Virtually all Miraphones were outside horn machines. This one is an inside horn. - The case, and lid picture, are from F. Otto & Sons, makers of Capital, Criterion, Olympia and other music boxes in New Jersey. This Miraphone was manufactured long after Otto went out of business. Most likely, Jacot and Sons had bought up their remaining stocks of cases, and with a little adaption fitted the Miraphone movement into an Olympia case. Interesting. A few other features: - The inside horn has a hinged lid to close while the music box is playing - The tone arm is telescoping, allowing it to be raised up when needed and lowered out of the way when not Mermod Frères has manufactured this machine in 1903 and is still in the 1911 catalog
Original photos: 87 Ko


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