Extremely rare musical box smashes records
Elite market of collectors drove bidding to £54,000

AN extremely rare musical box is believed to have smashed the world sales record when it was sold at auction on Friday (May 30) for £54,000 – 180 times the estimate.

The circa 1825 Swiss satinwood box with movement by the little-known but highly-sought-after craftsman Francois Nicole was estimated at £300 to £500. Auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent only became aware they had something really special on their hands after the catalogue was published.

Geneva-based Nicole is thought to have made around 440 musical boxes during his working life, but only around 60 examples are known and catalogued today. He was one of the earliest makers of musical boxes, and the lack of a visible serial number on this example suggested to collectors that this was one of his earliest works.

Following the publication of the catalogue, word quickly spread around the collecting community, but the price became too rich for many as the bids spiralled from the thousands into the tens of thousands of pounds. In the end, just two bidders did battle on the telephone, with a collector from Europe winning the auction.

The world record for a Francois Nicole musical box is believed to have been shattered when bidding reached £45,000. “A hush came over the auction room when the hammer fell,” said auctioneer Philip Allwood.

“We didn’t realise the significance of Francois Nicole. Previous sales of his work would seem to pre-date electronic cataloguing. Still, I could see the fine craftsmanship and thought it was a lovely piece. We put £300 to £500 on it and thought it might make £1,000 on a good day.

“Then a couple of days before the auction we started getting enquiries from the UK and Europe. One chap described Francois Nicole to us as the Michelangelo of musical box makers. It became clear that we had something very special on our hands and that word was getting around an elite collectors’ community. I started the bidding at £5,000, and had pre-registered interest of up to £15,000, but was still surprised how far two bidders were prepared to go to own the box.”

Keith Harding, the world’s leading restorer of musical boxes, who runs the World of Mechanical Music Museum in Northleach, Gloucestershire, and who was one of the early bidders, said after the sale: “This was an exceptionally fine box that I would dearly have loved to have owned.

“I’m very surprised by the sum it achieved. It’s an astonishing amount. It was in exceptional condition and there was no evidence that anyone had tried to carry out repairs, which is often the problem with musical boxes of this age. The teeth were perfect and there was no damage to the exceptionally fine case.”

Even without the musical box, the auction would have still broken the saleroom’s own Selected Antiques Sale record of £210,000 – with almost £295,000 worth of antiques being sold on the day.

An early 19th century gilt bronze six light candelabrum in the Egyptian Revival taste made £26,000; a pair of exhibition quality porcelain vases in the Sevres manner achieved £8,600; a pair of Regency mahogany library chairs were sold for £6,300 and a George III silver salver by Paul Storr –renowned as one of the country’s greatest ever silver smiths – made £3,000.

The Francois Nicole musical box, which is believed to have smashed auction records when it was sold for £54,000
A pair of exhibition quality porcelain vases in the Sevres manner, which achieved £8,600	An early 19th century gilt bronze six light candelabrum, which sold for £26,000