I was put in contact late last week with a lady who lives near
Uniontown Pennsylvania.  Her employer found the MMD and two other
music box references when he did a web search.  He left me a phone
message since she's not a computer person.  I called her back and
we had a nice conversation.

She has owned, for 30 years, a Stella music box which plays 17-inch
disks.  She's wondering what its worth.  She likes playing it and
says to her it plays "perfectly".  It didn't sound like she was
in a hurry to sell it and I advised her not to sell it on impulse since
it might turn out to be worth a lot more than the first offer she
gets.

She described the box as a tabletop unit, about 30x30.  It has carved
flowers on the front.  There's a label that says "Stella 3926".  A
typical disk for it says "Copyright 1897 Mermod Freres".  She has
17 disks.  A small gold plaque on the inside says "Jacob & Sons, Union
Square New York".

I'm skeptical of the 30x30 dimension, but she was not near the music
box when she guesstimated the dimensions.

Is Jacob & Sons the dealer that originally sold the box ?

Is "3926" a model number ?  Is this a double-comb model ?  (There's
been a description published here in the MMD of how to check a 17-inch
Stella to see if it is a double-comb model but I don't think I could
explain it to her or understand the answer.)

Any thoughts, suggestions, or advice would be appreciated.  Since she's
not a computer person I will collect up the answers and phone or fax
them to her in a week or so.

Thanks
Jody