Details
Image(s)
TitleMusical Vinaigrette, with Stagged Comb Movement
Creatorunknown
PlaceGeneva (Switzerland)
Year ca. 1815
Object number1205
Object categorymechanical instruments with playing comb, music boxes
Object namemusic box with cylinder
DescriptionThe playing mechanism is located under the fragrance compartment of this gold perfume box (or 'vinaigrette') and is accessible from the bottom. The brass playing mechanism has a stacking comb with 9 steel teeth, one of which is broken off. The movement can be turned on by sliding the slider on the front. The music program is on the spring barrel of the mechanism ("Musique a barillet"), which saves space in the action due to this double function. Consequently, this system is often found in small objects with a playing mechanism. A gold winding key is included with the box.
Accompanying textsThe music program consists of one song in a minor key, the title and composer of which are currently unidentified.
Small cologne boxes such as these would have been used to store pleasant scents that the user could inhale, or dab on themselves, when passing something that didn't smell so good, which could occur often in early 19th-century cities. Being able to afford perfume, or spending time and money cultivating the way you looked or smelled, was basically reserved for the elite. Ideas about hygiene were quite different at this time, but although people were not yet beginning to talk about transmission in terms of germs, they had observed a connection between bad smells and disease.
Small cologne boxes such as these would have been used to store pleasant scents that the user could inhale, or dab on themselves, when passing something that didn't smell so good, which could occur often in early 19th-century cities. Being able to afford perfume, or spending time and money cultivating the way you looked or smelled, was basically reserved for the elite. Ideas about hygiene were quite different at this time, but although people were not yet beginning to talk about transmission in terms of germs, they had observed a connection between bad smells and disease.