Posted 3 years ago
amjm7393
(33 items)
Can someone assist me in telling me if this is original Hummel music box and year it was made? It is in good condition and plays melody.
Music box | ||
| Music Boxes11 of 247 |  |  |
Music box | ||
| Music Boxes11 of 247 | | |
Posted 3 years ago
amjm7393
(33 items)
Can someone assist me in telling me if this is original Hummel music box and year it was made? It is in good condition and plays melody.
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Hi, amjm7393. :-)
The Hummel image on your music box is called "Das ängstliche Schwesterlein" (The Scared Little Sister).
What you can't see in the image on top of your music box, but can see in the figurine is what is scaring the little girl, which is a frog:
https://www.autall.de/Hummel-Das-aengstliche-Schwesterlein-Hum-394-Figur-Frosch
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/goebel-hummel-timid-little-sister-nro-2006626865
The sculptor of that particular Hummel figurine (HUM 394) was Gerhard Skrobek:
http://mihummel.org/hummel-master-sculptors/
The tune your music box plays is "Die Forelle" (The Trout), by Schubert:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Die-Forelle
Pinning down the particulars of the maker of the musical mechanism, Superstar, has proven difficult.
A clue is provided in this JustAnswer dot com evaluation:
*snip*
The movement inside yours was made by Superstar. Though they were made with Swiss movements, the boxes were made in Switzerland, Germany and even Italy and Japan. Given that yours was made with a Superstar musical movement and features little feet, it was probably made in Italy around the 1960s/1970s. German ones didn't usually have feet and Japanese ones were usually marked.
These little boxes features designs that were based off Hummels, but they weren't actually "made by" Hummel and they were officially licensed Hummels. The official Hummel music boxes were round. There's actually tons of products out there with Hummels designs that weren't strictly "official".
*snip*
https://www.justanswer.com/antiques/axmvo-hummel-music-box-made-west-germany.html
The clue is not the stated one (circa 1960s/1970s, because of the footed box probably being Italian-made), but rather the fact of the tune it plays: "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head."
That tune was composed and written by Burt Bacharach/Hal David, sung by B. J. Thomas, and popularized by the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid":
https://www.discogs.com/master/90498-BJ-Thomas-Raindrops-Keep-Fallin-On-My-Head
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064115/
What that means is that the Superstar musical mechanism maker was around at that time. In fact, they still seem to be around. I don't know why they seem to be a stubborn mystery.
That your music box doesn't have feet and isn't marked suggests that it might be German-made.
I'm sorry that I couldn't pin it down any closer than that. There has been a lot of Hummel items created and marketed over the years.
More information about M. I. Hummel art:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/official-mi-hummel-price-guide-figures-plates/oclc/879504456
https://archive.org/details/hummeloriginalil0000koll/page/n5/mode/2up
https://www.worldcat.org/title/hummel-the-original-illustrations-of-sister-maria-innocentia-hummel/oclc/1285652688
D'oh! I read back, and realized that I'd forgotten to link the Worthpoint music box with the same Hummel image on top (The Scared Little Sister/The Timid Sister), and the Superstar music mechanism that plays "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head":
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/hummel-superstar-switzerland-musical-1787632002
If you'd read my earlier comment, you might have been wondering why I'd connected that tune to Superstar, because the music box in the JustAnswer evaluation plays "Edelweiss."
Well, as long as I'm commenting again, I might as well give you a couple more references:
https://www.themusicboxman.com/collection-info/
https://especiallywallawalla.com/music-box-history-discover-the-history/