The 19^th-century Swiss watchmakers and clockmakers did not just create magnificent timepieces and self-playing instruments; they also transformed everyday objects into mechanical masterpieces and "curiosities." The museum Collection houses numerous testaments to this fascinating phenomenon. Today, we would like to showcase one of the rarest and most touching examples – a music box in the shape of a child's cradle. 

The music box is crafted in full life-size scale, standing 142 cm tall and weighing 60 kg. What is more, its musical movement is not concealed within the body, but is fully visible and open to the eye. Viewers can closely examine the interchangeable pinned cylinders – the music record carrying the tune ­– and two steel musical combs that produce its distinctive, crystal-clear, chiming sound. Thanks to this feature, the operation of the mechanism becomes a spectacle: one can observe the movement of its components and witness how an elegant melody is born from their seamless interaction.

This extraordinary music box blends childhood with magic, precision craftsmanship with a living wonder, and music with the art of mechanics. It feels as if it transports us back to the world of mechanical marvels and mysterious objects coming to life – a world so familiar from the works of Vladimir Odoyevsky, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Hans Christian Andersen, and other writers of bygone eras.