Russian Carved and Painted Wooden Saint Basil's Cathedral Music Box. The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, known in English as Saint Basil’s Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in the Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular and easily recognized cultural symbols of Russia. Its many different sized onion-topped spires and vibrant design was meant to be a symbol of Slavic power and the sacrifices of the medieval sects of Russia in the face of invasions from Mongols, Tartars, and other non-Christian enemies as the empire first came together. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and specifically commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. The iconic colors that make it so distinctive were applied in 1683, and have been frequently retouched and revised over the centuries. Today it stands as an enduring symbol of the fallen Russian Empire, the vitality of the Byzantine Church, and a return to freedom for the people of Russia after it was fully restored from its secularized state as the headquarters of the Kremlin during the time of the Soviet Union. Marked on the base next to the mechanism in Cyrillic script: "Uryadovat Moscow '99." 

Condition: Wind-up mechanism works. Plays a Russian folk tune. 

Size: 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. 

A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or lamellae) of a steel comb. The earliest iteration appeared in 9th Century Baghdad where the Banū Mūsā brothers, a trio of Persian inventors, produced the earliest known mechanical musical instrument: a hydro powered organ that played interchangeable cylinders automatically, which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices. In Flanders in the 13th Century a bell ringer took the concept further and created a cylinder with pins that operated cams, which then hit the bells to create a melody. The popular device best known today as a “music box” developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th Century and were originally called carillons à musique (French for “chimes of music”). Some of the more complex boxes also contain a tiny drum and/or bells in addition to the metal comb. Thomas Edison was heavily inspired by the devices when he created the phonograph in 1877. The Symphonium company started business in 1885 as the first manufacturer dedicated solely to disc-playing music boxes. Two of the founders of the company, Gustave Brachhausen and Paul Riessner, left to set up a new firm, Polyphon, in direct competition with their original business and their third partner, Oscar Paul Lochmann. Following the establishment of the Original Musikwerke Paul Lochmann in 1900, the founding Symphonion business continued until 1909. Meanwhile, Polyphon expanded to America, where Brachhausen established the Regina Company, which had early success but eventually reinvented itself as a maker of vacuums and steam cleaners. In the heyday of the music box, some variations were as tall as a grandfather clock and all used interchangeable large disks to play different sets of tunes. These were spring-wound and driven and both had a bell-like sound. The machines were often made in England, Italy, and the United States, with additional disks made in Switzerland, Austria, and Prussia. In the modern era innovations are still being made to the music box, such as the Marble Machine created by the band Wintergatan in 2016, and the first app-controlled mechanical music box developed in Taiwan in 2019. 

Wind-up mechanism works. Plays a Russian folk tune.