Dolores Waltz Sound Design Part 2

For the theatrical production for which I am the sound designer,
if I might beg one more bit of assistance in this endeavor:  I now
have all the music I need; however, the playwright has specified that
one of the characters have a small musical 'mechanism' onstage which
plays the Dolores waltz.

I can prerecord the waltz to play from the loudspeaker hidden onstage
with no problem, but I need a plausible looking musical box small
enough for the actor to hold and sturdy enough to actually also drop
at one point.

The only sound that need come out of it would be the ratchet sound of
a key winding.  We would like that effect to be live, so the question
is what to use that will not necessarily require a spring but that will
make the ratchet noise and be operable onstage.

A toy of some sort that we could obtain cheaply in case we break them
in use over the run of the show (seven weeks), which we could operate
through a hole in the bottom just like a real box?  Any other ideas?

The darn playwright didn't know what trouble he was getting us into
with his casual yet pivotal suggestion.  Such a romantic!

Claudine Jones
San Francisco