Tips For Selecting Highly Collectible Reuge Music Boxes
When you think of collectible Reuge music boxes, think of the best and most exclusive music boxes available on the market. But how you can be sure that you have indeed purchased a highly collectible Reuge music box? We’ll be covering how you can find and select such music boxes in this article.
Reuge music boxes are truly special items. The first creator of these fine music boxes was Charles Reuge, who handmade music boxes in a small town in Switzerland. Due to their fine craftsmanship, these music boxes spread far and wide. After his death, his son continued in his footsteps. In fact, the workshop is still there at the same address, in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland.
Collectible music boxes are hand made. The workshop in Saint-Croix in world renowned for producing some of the finest and rarest music boxes around the world, so make sure you are getting the real deal. For the music box connoisseur, it is best to make a trip to Switzerland in order to select the limited edition models that may not be sold at many stores because of their price and limited quantity. You can also ask the locals of that little town if they own any Reuge music boxes. They are likely to own some of the first and best models, maybe even those handmade by Charles Reuge himself. If you are able to acquire such pieces, you are a lucky owner of a rare and highly collectible Reuge music box.
The size of the music box and the tune are also an important determinant in a collectible. Bigger boxes tend to be harder to maintain and keep. The cost to acquire them was also high, making it affordable only to the wealthy. The tune is also important because if you had popular tunes, people would be more willing to buy it than to acquire one that plays an obscure tune especially in the case of non-interchangeable music boxes. The materials used to make good music boxes were rare and expensive, such as rose wood, which made them rather resilient to aging if well-taken care of.
Another good place to check is online specialty stores that sell collectible music boxes. If you do some research you might find a Reuge music box worth collecting. Make sure they are old, in good condition (for its age) and is limited in quantities. It’s a pretty good bet that if you have one from the early 1900s that the music box is hard to find. If you are not an expert at fixing these music boxes, make sure you have an idea what restoring a piece might cost. Otherwise, it’s a lot better to go ahead and pay the premium for a working music box than to take the risk of paying exorbitant restoration costs for a collectible music box. The price will also tell you a lot of things. Highly collectible music boxes don’t come cheap.
Reuge music boxes are items of a highest quality, so any item of any color, size or material can be highly collectible as long as the numbers of items you can find on the market are limited. In fact, at the beginning of the career, Charles Reuge hand made some limited edition music boxes, which now own a special status: highly collectible Reuge music boxes.
The best places to find highly collectible Reuge music boxes are: rare art and collectibles auctions, Saint-Croix and specialty stores.
Since these music boxes can be prohibitively expensive for most, a good strategy is to purchase contemporary Reuge music boxes. They cost a whole lot less than the rare ones and are also easier to acquire.