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Take The Virtual Tour With Us
(Click the photos for a larger view)
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, etched brass and chrome animals and a jeweled crown by Fred Zimbalist, and a miniature chinoiserie and ivory cigarette dispenser with Mozart playing the harpsichord in a grand salon! 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 the famous ride, "It's A Small 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, built by Germans in the USA dominates the middle of the room. The fabulous German Polyphon stands between two 80" windows, and a low table shows music boxes from the East. You will be amazed by their sounds. 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 one watches two ships sail the high seas into a Dutch port in this ornately framed diorama. 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 an additional one 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 German biblical figures. To get one's attention, the musicians suddenly raise their instruments and the dancers twirl, clap and salute as a wooden barrel cylinder plays 8 selections on 62 organ pipes. At the conclusion of the dance the musicians lower their instruments and the clock strikes the hour. Additionally, we hear the unusually rare 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 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 early cylinder phonographs, including Pathé, Edison, and Columbia, with their cygnet horns and listening tubes, plus the extremely rare Autophone cylinder changer. Other treasures include a Capitol Cuff Box, coin-operated disc boxes, a stunning Nicole Freres interchangeable cylinder box, a Wilcox and White Player Pump Organ and 2 unusual furnishings: an armadillo ornamental lamp and armadillo 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 horns ranging from concealed to giant-sized, we show and demonstrate a variety of recordings manufactured during the height of the phonograph era, contemporary with the machines, including a Edison Diamond Disc, a Victor Orthophonic Credenza Phonograph, a Columbia Grand Piano Phonograph, a Thorens Camera Phonograph, and the most unusual Phonolamp. An authentic papiér maché Victor "Nipper" watches over our activities.
Library
  
The Library begins with a Peerless Pneumatic 20-note Paper Roll Organ from Melbourne, England, playing Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, a Bremond Organ Box, followed by an Arno Musical Box with 45-notes playing Brahms' Lullaby, a Paillard custom-made hymn musical 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 name translated) playing selections from The Tales of Hoffman, several early keywinds, a British Barrel Piano, circa 1830 with a tapestry front, a Swiss cylinder box, circa 1860, with three bells on the side and an inlaid cover. A rousing song from an 1883 Fairground organ concludes this room.
Bird of Paradise Room
  
The Grand Finale takes place in the Bird of Paradise Room, where our most rare and beautiful music boxes are displayed, including our oldest piece in the collection, a French Serinette Canary trainer Organette dating from 1790. The furniture in this room includes a bedroom suite once owned by the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (whose assassination sparked WW I. These furnishings were purchased by a relative of the Konvalinkas. Other treats include a Reuge Magic Mirror and a 3-bird Swiss birdcage, a 5-tune interchangeable Bremond cylinder music box and a Swiss bell and drum box with Chinese tune indicator numerals. A demonstration of the very rare Regina Drum Table concludes the deluxe program, although encores may be requested.
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Maintained by Softgame Company maker of games and puzzles.
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