Info please!

Oct 28, 2021
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I was given several boxes of items left from a sale and found this. The music still plays. I've tried all the search options and i know L. Haag was in Lucerne, Switzerland but nothing on this particular piece. I'm hoping to see if anyone has any information on this. Thank you
 

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I was given several boxes of items left from a sale and found this. The music still plays. I've tried all the search options and i know L. Haag was in Lucerne, Switzerland but nothing on this particular piece. I'm hoping to see if anyone has any information on this. Thank you
I don,t know any thing about it except it,s really pretty.I expect that RedCoat would be the guy who can ID it for you and you,ll probably hear from him.Welcome to this fine site from S.E.Arkansas.
 

Welcome to Tnet.

Neat!

It’s a novelty/souvenir plate that plays tunes. Two of them (2 airs, as it says), assuming the mechanism isn't broken or seized up.

The handwritten part of the label says what they are. It appears to read “Loreley” and “Hertz mein Hertz”. I would guess the first one is the old German folk ballad “Die Loreley” (with words about a beautiful siren who unwittingly lures boatmen to their death as she sits singing on the Lorelei rock on the bank of the Rhine river, and set to music by Friedrich Silcher in the 1800s; and the second is probably “Herz, mein Herz, nicht in der Weite” (Heart, my heart, not far away), an old German hymnal set to music by Johann Balthasar König in 1738.

The swivelling ring on the underside should wind a clockwork spring to power a music-box movement and the ball knob will either be an on-off switch or perhaps determine which of the two tunes is played.

“L.Haag – Succ. L.Haag-Binder’ means that it was made by L.Haag as the successor to the company formerly known as L.Haag-Binder, which would mean it was made sometime between 1911-1941 according to Swiss company registration records. The company originally made carved wooden items (cuckoo and ‘Black Forest’ clocks, jewellery chests and trinket boxes, miniature Alpine chalets, ashtrays, ornaments and such), later using other materials as well as wood. Some of these items had music -box movements inside them, like yours.
 

Welcome to Tnet.

Neat!

It’s a novelty/souvenir plate that plays tunes. Two of them (2 airs, as it says), assuming the mechanism isn't broken or seized up.

The handwritten part of the label says what they are. It appears to read “Loreley” and “Hertz mein Hertz”. I would guess the first one is the old German folk ballad “Die Loreley” (with words about a beautiful siren who unwittingly lures boatmen to their death as she sits singing on the Lorelei rock on the bank of the Rhine river, and set to music by Friedrich Silcher in the 1800s; and the second is probably “Herz, mein Herz, nicht in der Weite” (Heart, my heart, not far away), an old German hymnal set to music by Johann Balthasar König in 1738.

The swivelling ring on the underside should wind a clockwork spring to power a music-box movement and the ball knob will either be an on-off switch or perhaps determine which of the two tunes is played.

“L.Haag – Succ. L.Haag-Binder’ means that it was made by L.Haag as the successor to the company formerly known as L.Haag-Binder, which would mean it was made sometime between 1911-1941 according to Swiss company registration records. The company originally made carved wooden items (cuckoo and ‘Black Forest’ clocks, jewellery chests and trinket boxes, miniature Alpine chalets, ashtrays, ornaments and such), later using other materials as well as wood. Some of these items had music -box movements inside them, like yours.
It does play the tunes. Would it be of value to a museum or collector? I don't have the space or ability to store this.
 

I was given several boxes of items left from a sale and found this. The music still plays. I've tried all the search options and i know L. Haag was in Lucerne, Switzerland but nothing on this particular piece. I'm hoping to see if anyone has any information on this. Thank you
Nice!!! Congrats!!! Welcome to Tnet!!!
 

It does play the tunes. Would it be of value to a museum or collector? I don't have the space or ability to store this.

I don't recall ever having seen one for sale, and Google doesn't throw any up. You can probably assume it to be a scarce thing (in the sense of not many made, or not many survived) and potentially of interest to a collector... but "scarce" is not the same thing as "valuable" of course.
 

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