Adrien Lador (1867-1950) lived at rue du Jura 9, Sainte Croix,
Switzerland.  He worked for Herman Thorens before starting as a
late entrant to the musical box industry making small musical boxes
and toys, registering the company July 1890.

He was a prolific maker of small cylinder and disc musical boxes.
Junod's index of addresses lists him at rue du Jura 32 in 1901 with
10 workers.  The firm supplied disc and manivelle (i.e. hand turned)
musical movements with and without a case.  The ones without a case
were sometimes adapted by others in a variety of novel ways.

He employed another well known person of those times, Eugène Recordon,
who worked with him for sixty years.  His staff included other well
known names associated with large musical boxes such as Elisa Campiche
and Alfred Mermod.

Lador, as far as is known, did not make large musical boxes but
remained mainly with the small cylinder and disc movements for the toy
and novelty market.  His six children had shares in the company and
two sons, Herman and Fernand, held responsible management positions.
Fernand succeeded him in 1949.

Piguet tells the rest of the Lador story in his book, "Les Faiseurs
de musiques".  The book was translated into English by the Musical
Box Society International (MBSI) and is still available at a very
reasonable cost.  The MBSI book is called "The Music Box Makers, The
History of the Music Box in Sainte Croix".  It tells more about how the
company diversified and innovated in the manufacture of small musical
cylinder movements.

Lador was well ahead of Reuge and other makers of these small movements
at that time, particularly in the use of light alloy precision castings
that simplified the assembly of components.

Paul Bellamy