First a personal note.
This blog has been delayed as themusicboxman had a knee replacement operation in March, 2017. And that is a painful affair, with the pain, the doctors say, may take a year to completely disappear. Throw in a back thrown out, physical therapy, massage, daily exercises and it fills the day. But I can walk again, drive and move around.
But it certainly confronts one with the results of age and thoughts about the future of the Collection.
The collection really exists of 2 parts, Musical Toys, approx. 10% of the Collection and Music Boxes, the main part of the Collection.
It may be that later this year the Musical Toys will be split off and go elsewhere, no certainty yet. There is really very little growth in this part of the Collection, as toys were mainly used by kids and relatively fewer survived intact, compared to music boxes. In the normal market of thrift stores, flea markets, estate- and garage sales little of value is offered anymore. If you look at the net there are certainly parties still offering musical toys, but at high prices; the low and medium market has disappeared. And it was never my intention to ‘ buy ‘ the Collection, the sport was to find items of interest at affordable prices.
I follow the same idea for music boxes, but find that music boxes that add to the collection still crop up in many places at affordable prices. But mainly from the eighties onward. Earlier music boxes are certainly harder to find already. And it is also true that the quality of the items generally is declining. One really has to check an item well to see whether it is complete, the music working or at least intact and only slight chips in not important places; and whether a head, a wing or whatever has not been glued back on. Some of those glue jobs I have been only able to see under special light, it happens, they are destroyed. It is one reason I practically do not buy from the internet or small private collections or items offered to me. I really want to check the item myself first.
And please also consider that the end date for items in both parts of the Collection is around 1990. So even the youngest items are meanwhile over 25 years old!
The best place for the Music Boxes Collection would be a museum or a private Collector that wants a ready ‘ museum ‘in one fell swoop. If there are interested parties, museum or private investor, i would appreciate to hear from them to assure the future of this Music Boxes Collection.
I wish all the readers of the Blog well!
Themusicboxman