The following text was received by me and is forwarded with the
author's permission.  The attachment can be seen at:

    http://www.txdirect.net/~egaida/crimea.html

Hope some of you can help this gentleman out.

Ed Gaida
egaida@txdirect.net

 -- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD --

From: pgvidoli@earthlink.net (Pierre-Gilles Vidoli)(fwd)

Ed, I'm the proud owner of a "Bacigalupo" Monkey Organ.  According
to the man who restored it in Europe, it was made around 1815.  The
letters in front indicates an address in Odessa, in Crimea on the
northern shore of the Black Sea.  It has a wooden barrel and plays
8 different songs or melodies of Russian/oriental character.

This is a very rare piece.  As a matter of fact the man who restored
it had never seen one from this provenance, but was able to identify
it as made by Bacigalupo from the way it was built and by the quality
of the wood inlays.

I would be interested to find out what its value would be on the market
among collectors of such unusual instrument here, and if you have any
knowledge of similar pieces in the U.S.

I am living in Los Angeles and can be reached by E-mail at
<pgvidoli@earthlink.net> or by phone at (323) 850-1753 .

I would appreciate any feedback or commentaries.

Pierre-Gilles Vidoli