Reuge music boxes, how to identify a vintage Reuge, and the Italian carousels collectors love

A vintage Reuge is a Swiss music movement made in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, often set inside a box, a carousel or a birdcage made somewhere else. To identify one, look for the Reuge name on the movement itself or on the label under the base, then read the tunes and the movement code.

Reuge pieces are some of the most delightful things we find. They are jewelry boxes, vanity pieces and small machines all at once, and every one we handle plays its own short concert when the key turns.

Who Reuge is

Charles Reuge opened his first workshop in Sainte-Croix in 1865, making pocket watches with musical movements. Sainte-Croix, in the Jura mountains of western Switzerland, had already been the center of music box making for decades. Charles's son Albert turned the workshop into a factory in 1886, and the Reuge factory that still stands in Sainte-Croix was built in 1930.

In 1960 Reuge bought the Paris house of Bontems, the great maker of mechanical singing birds, and took over that craft as well. That is why the same name appears on a lipstick carousel from Italy and on a gilt birdcage with two feathered birds inside.

Where to find the Reuge name

Turn the piece over and look in three places.

1. The movement. On many boxes the brass bedplate of the movement is visible through a window in the base or under a lift-out tray. Reuge stamped its name on the movement, often with "Swiss" or "Sainte-Croix".
2. The paper label. Many Reuge pieces carry a label under the base, often in red and gold, naming Reuge and listing the tunes. A musical manicure box we found carries a red "Reuge Limelight, Swiss Musical Movement" label.
3. The case. The case of an Italian carousel or jewelry box is often marked "Made in Italy" while the movement inside is Swiss. Both marks on one piece are normal, and they tell the true story of how these pieces were made.

How to read a movement

A Swiss movement is a pinned brass cylinder that turns against a steel comb. Each tooth of the comb is one note. The more teeth, the fuller the music.

Reuge and other Swiss makers describe a movement by its tunes and its notes. "4/50" means four tunes played on a comb of 50 notes. "2/36" means two tunes on 36 notes. One of the six-scene Reuge jewelry boxes we found has a 4/50 movement playing four melodies, which is a generous movement for a box of that size.

The Italian lipstick and cigarette carousels

The pieces that make people stop in their tracks are the carousels. Italian workshops built the bodies, in onyx, porcelain, marble or painted wood with silver-plated or gilt mounts, and fitted them with Reuge movements from Switzerland. Wind the key and press the button, and the music starts while little doors open one by one around the center.

They were made to hold lipsticks on a dressing table or cigarettes on a side table, and today they hold rings, earrings and anything else small and precious. The finest have:

• Natural stone with strong veining. Green, honey and pale ivory onyx each look different, and every piece of stone is unique.
• Hand-painted porcelain in deep cobalt or burgundy, sometimes in the Sèvres or Capodimonte manner, with raised figures and gilt sprays.
• Figural details: a cherub on the dome, claw or scrolled feet, a ballerina who turns in the center.
• Mechanisms that still run smoothly, with every door opening in turn.

Some of the most theatrical pieces are the musical cigarette dispensers, where the music raises the top on a small chain and pulley to present what is inside. Our Capodimonte-style musical cigarette dispenser has hand-painted raised figures on its body and a silver-plated arch above it.

Date a carousel by its tunes

The tune list is a lovely dating tool. Many carousels play film and Broadway themes, and a box cannot be older than its music. Tunes we see on these pieces include "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music (1965), "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago (1965), "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (1969) and the theme from Love Story (1970). Those tunes place many carousels in the 1960s and 1970s. Classical pieces such as "The Emperor Waltz" and Italian songs such as "Torna a Surriento" do not date a box as closely, so read them together with the style and the label.

Singing bird automatons

A singing bird automaton is the most magical thing Reuge makes. When you wind it and turn the switch, a tiny feathered bird sings, turns its head, opens its beak and moves its tail in time with its song, then stops by itself. Reuge says its birds perform for 10 to 12 seconds before they stop.

Our Reuge double singing bird automaton has two birds in a gilt birdcage, perched among chased branches and leaves, and they sing in turns.

How to care for a Reuge

Reuge's own advice is simple, and it is the advice we follow.

• Keep it dry and out of the sun. A dry room at a moderate temperature is best.
• Dust it with a soft, dry cloth. No cleaning products, and no polish on the movement.
• Never touch the comb or the cylinder. Oil and moisture from your fingers can damage the steel and the brass.
• Play it regularly. Reuge recommends running a mechanism at least once a month so it does not seize.
• Do not force it. Wind gently until you feel resistance, and stop. If a lid or a door does not close at the end of a cycle, wind it again rather than pressing it shut.

For anything more than that, take it to a music box restorer. A Reuge movement that has been cared for will play for generations.

Why collectors look for Reuge

A Reuge is Swiss engineering inside an Italian or French work of decorative art. It plays, it moves, it holds something precious, and it is beautiful even when it is still. No two carousels are quite the same, because every piece of onyx and every painted panel is different.

Every Reuge piece we have now is in our Reuge collection, and the vanity pieces that go with them are in our vanity collection.