Regina Model 35 Music Box, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
This is my mother's music box. When she was going to school in Lawrence, Kansas, in the summer, she worked for this family that had a farm nearby. And she remembers this music box being in the house, and she remembers playing it on weekends, and when people came over. It was a special occasion to play this. The people that owned it told her that they bought it new. When these people retired from farming, they shipped it to her from Kansas to Las Cruces, and then my mother died in October, and now it's mine.
APPRAISER:
It's a Regina music box. This is the manufacturer here. It retains its original gallery, original mahogany finish, has an art glass front, and it stands on cabriole legs. Now, these are all variations that Regina made. You could have had it without the gallery, with a clear glass front, with straight legs. It's a Model 35, it's for home use or parlor use. It plays a 15.5-inch disc, and it's a changer, similar to what a jukebox would be. If we open it up here, we can see that the Regina company, of Rahway, New Jersey, manufactured it. It retains its serial number. This serial number, people have the records of this, so they can actually determine who bought it, when it was sold and when it was manufactured. It dates from right around the turn of the 20th century, 1898 to around 1910 or so, and it sounds beautiful. Shall we hear it play?
GUEST:
Sure.
APPRAISER:
It's cranked by hand with this hand crank. The discs are selected with this monitor here, and then this swivel guard starts the mechanism. (dance tune playing) So what makes this one a bit more exceptional than the others is its finished condition, it's working. For an auction estimate, I would estimate it at $15,000 to $20,000.
GUEST:
Oh. That's interesting. Thank you.
APPRAISER:
These are far more desirable with the art glass front than they are with the clear glass front. Probably means about $5,000, maybe even $8,000 extra, to have that art glass front for a collector today.
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