Take The Virtual Tour With Us

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Entrance Hall

In the Entrance Hall you will find 23 antique coin-operated instruments, 19 of them musical boxes, surrounding a magnificent Flying Staircase and classical mouldings, setting the mood of a bygone era. Don't forget to sign our guest book on our rare musical box with a matching writing desk. One visit and we guarantee that you will keep coming back for years to come.

Green and Gold Room

Your presentation begins in the lavishly furnished Green and Gold Room. Guests are offered candy from a hand-carved Swiss wooden bread bowl, hear an English teapot play on a French musical tile trivet, see a child's manivelle from Germany, and watch as an Indian musical Mosque plays melodies from Verdi operas, opening its doors to reveal glasses originally used to serve after-dinner liquors. We then demonstrate an early key wind box, a singing bird box and a miniature ivory Mozart 2-tune cigarette dispenser. We then turn to show an early interchangeable music box with a matching table. A favorite with both old and young is the famous 1875 Langdorff of Geneva, Switzerland, which features a program of eight songs. The Langdorff's hidden bells and two dancing German bisque dolls makes this piece a rare example of superb Swiss craftsmanship and fun for the young people. Children will also be delighted at our German Whistler, a Mozart Automaton Figurine which was Walt Disney's inspiration for Disney World, The Nutcracker Suite Carousel with four rotating dancing scenes and our Black Forest pet Fido. Your visit to the Green and Gold Room is not complete until you see and hear the fabulous Ideal Sublime Harmonie Interchangeable Cylinder Music Box by Mermod Freres of St. Croix, Switzerland, dating from 1889. This instrument has the capacity to play 60 melodies on ten interchangeable cylinders. Several selections from its repertoire were recorded for our Christmas Joy, Vol. 2 recording, which is offered in our gift shop and online. It's "cheers" from our Italian Venetian glass decanter and we are off to the Red Room.

Red Room

Next you will experience the rich opulence of the Red Room, where you will be shown fine examples of larger cylinder and disc music boxes, beginning with a group of music boxes displayed on the Brimsmead and Sons Player Grand Piano. As we look around the room we see beautiful antiques, Austrian musical clocks, tapestries, paintings and rugs. The Olympia, made in the USA, but built by Germans, dominates the middle of the room. The fabulous German Polyphon stands between two 80" windows, and a low table shows music boxes from China, etc. You will be amazed by their sound. Nearby is the Stella, made by Mermod Freres, is a treat to the eyes as the star wheel 'twinkles' as it pops up through the discs under the light. One of our two Expression Pianos will be played for your entertainment: the Marshall and Wendell with an Ampico mechanism or the George Steck with a Duo-Art mechanism. One marvels at an Austrian Musical Nautical Diorama, where we watch two ships sail the high seas into a Dutch port in this ornately framed wall shadow box. After the magnificent sound of the Swiss Mira, with its superb bass notes and volume, and a beautiful tune from a Czech musical wall clock, we conclude with an impromptu rendition on the dinner gong by one of our unsuspecting but creative visitors.

Great Music Room

Our Great Music Room is on the opposite side of the entrance hall. This double-sized room is a smorgasbord for the lovers of music and the connoisseur of fine music boxes and player grand pianos. This room alone contains over 5,500 compositions that could be played by cylinder and disc music boxes as well as player grand pianos. The first mechanical musical marvel that is shown and played for our visitors is the famous 1845 Austrian Musical Clock Painting with a 2-tune movement and a blind man's clock movement. Next, a Swiss orchestral box plays the famous French 'Can-Can'. As we scan this former salon we see an entire wall top to bottom with custom-built rolling shelves which hold music boxes, musical steins, whistlers, chalets and more. Turn around, and you be treated to the magnificence of the Allard Cartel Interchangeable Music Box with matching table, made in Geneva, Switzerland for a wealthy American family, a focal point in the room. We also see and hear two Pailliard Interchangeable Cylinder boxes from St. Croix, Switzerland. The large is composed of Briarwood, with 24-Carat Gold ormolu, pewter and brass inlay and lacquered Thuya wood. You will hear and see the progression of the Polyphon family from their beginnings in Germany to their formation of the Regina Music Box Company in Rahway, NJ. A rare treat will be the demonstration of their Reginaphone, a transitional instrument playing both a steel disc and a phonograph record. The room also features two grand player pianos, an American A.B. Chase Artistano and a German Steinway "O" Pedal Grand. No presentation would be complete without the unmatched glorious sound of the German Emerald Polyphon, an impressive instrument using 22-inch diameter discs and featuring 16 tuned orchestral bells playing in unison with the 2 sonorous music combs. There are only 12 known examples to exist in the world. The Emerald Polyphon is illustrated and listed as the definitive music box in The Encyclopedia Britannica. It is also stated in this publication that the Musical Wonder House is the only museum in the world where this model music box may be seen and heard. The Emerald Polyphon has been meticulously restored and is featured on many of our stereo recordings of music boxes issued by the Musical Wonder House.

The Grand House Presentation

The Grand House Presentation includes a 2-3 hour guided listening presentation in 7 major rooms , with over 75 instruments played and explained. There is simply no other musical experience to compare to this presentation.

Upper Hallway

After completing your presentation of the first floor three rooms, the visitors ascend the flying staircase to the Upper Hallway. Our presentation begins with a performance by a Dutch Barrel Organ Flute Clock, circa 1830. The face features two hand painted biblical figures. After the gong strikes the hour, the musicians raise their instruments and the dancers twirl as a wooden barrel cylinder plays 8 selections on 61 organ pipes. At the conclusion of the dance the musicians lower their instruments. Additionally, we hear the unusual Fortuna disc music box, built in Germany in the late 1800's. Only five examples of this beautiful instrument are known to exist worldwide. An 1883 Fairground organ from Austria, an enormous Black Forest Musical Cuckoo Clock, a Swiss interchangeable music box and a seldom seen German 2-tune 1900 Sirion Disc Shifter complete our presentation around the Upper Hallway.

Oak Room

Next, in our visit through the Oak Room, you will see and hear a variety of music boxes, including a Capitol Cuff Box, a stunning Nicole Freres cylinder box, a Wilcox and White Player Pump Organ, and cylinder phonographs equipped with cygnet horns and listening tubes. The Oak Room also offers the extremely rare Autophone phonograph, a Pathé Salon cylinder phonograph, and unusual items such as a Magolica lamp and 2 Armadillo ornamental items: a lamp and a basket.

Phonograph Room

We leave the Oak Room and pass directly into the Phonograph Room, filled with a variety of disc-style talking machines manufactured between 1902 and 1929 in several countries, including the USA, France, Britain and Russia. With external horns ranging from concealed to giant-sized, we show and play a variety of recordings manufactured during the height of the phonograph era, contemporary with the machines, including a Victor Orthaphonic, a Columbia Grand Piano Phonograph, a Thorens camera phonograph and several pieces of furniture and decorative objects that play records. An authentic Victor "Nipper" composed of papier maché watches over our activities.

Library

The Library begins with an American made Peerless Pneumatic 20-note Paper Roll Organ from Boston, AM, playing Gilbert and Sullivan, a Bremond Organ Box, followed by an Arno Musical Box with 45-notes playing Braham's Lullaby, a Paillard custom-made hymn music box, a Bremond 9-bell box featuring an all opera program, a Grand Roller Organ playing a surprise selection, a Langdorff music box with a flute organ and an inlay on the cover of Lily-Of-The-Valley (Konvalinka translated), an early Swiss keywind, a British Barrel Piano, circa 1830, with a tapestry front, a Nicole Freres Interchangeable Music Box with a matching table playing Mozart, a Nicole Freres large cylinder 10-tune music box, a rare Helvetia 2-bell disc box and a Swiss cylinder box, circa 1860, with three bells on the side with an inlaid cover.

Bird of Paradise Room

The Grand Finale takes place in the Bird of Paradise Room, where additional rare music boxes are displayed, including a French Serinette Bird Organ dating from 1740. The furniture in this room includes a bedroom suite formerly owned by Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (whose assassination sparked WW I) which was inherited from Danilo's grandfather Ferdinand Lang, who was the Archdukes' in-house court composer at the time. Another special treat is a magic musical mirror and a French birdcage with three mechanical singing birds. A demonstration of the very rare Regina Drum Table concludes the deluxe program, although encores may be requested.

Merry Music Box Gift Shoppe

Originally just a counter under the Flying Staircase, our Merry Music Box Gift Shoppe now includes over a thousand beautiful and unusual musically-related items. Previous Merry Music Box shops have included Kensington, MD, Georgetown, DC, Dallas and Galveston TX, Boothbay Harbor and Hallowell ME, Lexington, MA. and Freeport, ME. Since 2006 shops were consolidated to the Musical Wonder House.

Many of our museum guests are either collectors or are interested in collecting music boxes. we have been fortunate to help locate sources of fine new musical boxes and musical gift items from around the world, including Asia and Europe and offer them for sale. A wondrous variety of restored antique music boxes are offered for sale in our two antique showrooms. The truly astounding tones of an antique musical box are simply unmatched. Check out these two antique showrooms. We look forward to your visit.