Musical Instruments & Memorabilia

A collection from three actors will be offered in Los Angeles this month.

Stand-out lots on offer in upcoming summer auctions and from dealers.

Until the widespread advent of the wireless, barrel organs were a familiar sight (and sound) on the streets of Berlin and other major German cities.

This 19th century Tibetan conch shell ritual trumpet, known as a dung-dkar, forms part of the Tony Bingham collection of musical instruments.

The Edison Class M cylinder phonograph was initially intended for business dictation but in time entertainment became its main role.

This Regina disc and double comb-operated upright musical box is expected to be one of the highlights when Woody Auction in Kansas offers the collection of David and Marlene Howard from Ohio on March 19.

The Palais Royale built for Cardinal Richelieu in 1629 had a variety of uses over the years but in the 18th and early 19th century was rebuilt as a place for public recreation and social gathering.

François Nicole (b.1766), the Geneva-based pioneer of the key-wind musical box, is thought to have made around 440 boxes during his working life, but only around 60 are known today.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Bought in 1952 by a semi-pro Skegness musician who played with East Coast seaside entertainers, this steel string guitar got a big show of hands at Louth auction house John Taylors (18% buyer’s premium).

Emile Berliner (1851-1921), a German clerk in a Washington DC haberdashery, is credited with inventing both the first commercially successful disc record and the first machine to play it.

Only a handful of companies have created products with sufficient impact that their brand names become generic descriptions for objects of their type.

A classic ‘barn find’ piece, this somewhat dilapidated jukebox was spotted as a potential golden oldie at Gardiner Houlgate (22% buyer’s premium).

What auctioneer Michael Callan called “a modest mid terrace town house in Irvine, Ayrshire” was the source of one of the star lots of a recent Thomas R Callan (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Ayr.

The Royal Academy of Music has said it has no plans to sell or dispose of any of its historic instruments after national media reported it was looking into ‘decolonialising’ its collection.