Music scholar Dr. Tony Sheppard, writing in the New York Times, thinks
an 1877 music box in the Guinness Collection may have provided Puccini
with material for "Madame Butterfly" and also "Turandot":

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/arts/music/puccini-opera-echoes-a-music-box-at-the-morris-museum.html 

Randolph Herr

 [ Similar "Butterfly" musical boxes are discussed in these MMD articles:
 [   http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199607/1996.07.20.01.html 
 [   http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199607/1996.07.22.09.html 
 [   http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199712/1997.12.07.01.html 
 [ -- Robbie