In the recent MMD post numbered 190920, British collector and
cylinder box expert Paul Bellamy described his book, The Cylinder
Musical Box, A Collector's and Restorer's Handbook, published by
the Association of Musical Box Collectors, in Great Britain.
Bellamy has made significant and substantial additions to the
literature about the repair and restoration of cylinder musical boxes
that began with American Glenn Heckert's fine repair section in Roy
Mosoriak's The Complete History of Musical Boxes published in 1943;
the several editions of John Clark's book in the 1950s; the several
pertinent volumes authored by Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume in the 1960s
and 1970s,; Graham Webb's The Musical Box Handbook in 1965; and the
works of H. A. V. Bullied in the 1980s and 1990s.
Paul Bellamy's addition to this impressive list features large-scale
and exceedingly realistic photographs and drawings that in some cases
are much larger than real life. Each figure painstakingly identifies
all parts by name so it is impossible for the reader not to correctly
see and understand an illustration of each step in the restoration
process detailed in the text.
Although the book focuses on cylinder boxes, much of the material can
be used by those collectors considering the restoration of disc boxes.
Unlike most other books, Bellamy fully explains tuning marks and the
stretching of musical scales. For the repairing or replacing teeth or
re-pinning cylinders, the author reprints material from other experts
(with credit and permission) that is accompanied by the same excellent
photographs and drawings as the rest of the book.
Bellamy limited the first printing to 100 copies which may all be
sold but another batch will likely be printed. He also has granted
translation rights for a German edition and hopes to complete a similar
arrangement for copies in French.
This work is a superlative addition to the mechanical music literature
and is a must-have acquisition for serious enthusiasts or collectors of
cylinder musical boxes.
Bill Edgerton
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