Today, on World Smile Day, our traditional column, ‘Exhibit with History’ features Disc musical box "Stella" with automaton, created by Gustave Vichy (France, Paris) and Mermod Frères (Switzerland, Saint Croix) in the 1910-1920s.

Disc musical box with automaton is mounted in walnut veneered wooden case. Ornately shaped finial with phials on the ribbed cornice, carved inscription “Stella” and inscription “MUSIQUE-AUTOMATE-METTEZ 10CENT” is on the frieze. Hinged glass door with arch, slotted corners and chiselled columns is on the case front upper part side. Bust of the smiling clown in bright clothes, with a fool’s cap on the head, with moving shoulders, arms and eyelids is mounted inside. Acoustic window with slotted pattern, the same as the corners, covered with red fabric from the internal side, is beneath the door. Metal plate with coin slot is on the right-hand side, onlay with automaton winding crank and a door with metal band for the lock are above it. Musical movement crank, a lever for adjusting disk rotation speed and ornately shaped keyhole plate are on the case right side lower part.
Goldish ribbed chassis with the inscription “Stella” and a five-pointed star with the letters “St C” in the center is fixed inside, behind the glazed door with carved pilasters. Musical movement is mounted on it.

When a 10 centime coin is inserted and the springs are winded, the automaton movement and musical disk mechanism are activated, the coin goes through the groove into the coin box, the disk rotates, the pins touch the corresponding sprocket wheels, which, in turn, the teeth of the sound combs, the melody sounds, at the same time the clown claps his hands, shrug the shoulders, opens and closes his eyes.

The melody "Funiculi Funicula" by Luigi Denza with lyrics by Peppino Turco is encoded on the metal disk.
The history of the song is linked to the opening in 1880 of the first funicular railway on the slopes of Vesuvius, which was not popular with tourists, who preferred to walk. To attract people, the owner of the funicular railway commissioned a promotional song from composer Luigi Denza and poet Peppino Turco.
This cheerful Neapolitan melody tells the story of a young man who compares his beloved to a volcano and invites her to join him on a romantic walk to the head of the mountain. The song was presented at the Festa di Piedigrotta in Naples in the same year, 1880.
Within a year, the song had reached the top of the charts, which was equivalent to songs of the 19^th century. By 1881, a million copies of the sheet music had been sold.
Thanks to the song, tourists started to use the funicular, and it remained in operation for 25 years until it was destroyed by a moderate earthquake in the early 20^th century.

Since its premiere, the Neapolitan song has been performed by many classical singers, including Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli and Mario Lanza.
German composer Richard Strauss heard the song during his tour of Italy six years after it was written. Assuming it was a traditional Neapolitan folk song, he used it in ‘Neapolitan Folk Life,’ the fourth movement of his 1886 symphonic poem “Aus Italien”.
Denza sued him and won the case, and Strauss had to pay royalties.

Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov made the same assumption and used it in his 1907 ‘Neapolitan Song’. 

*Originator: Harvey Ball, an American artist who invented the world-famous smiley face (a yellow smiling face) in 1963.
Celebrated since 1999.
Motto: ‘Do a good deed. Help one smile become another.’
Main idea: This day should be dedicated to kindness and good cheer. On this day, everyone smiles at each other and does small but kind deeds to bring joy to those around them.