APPRAISER: I was so excited when I saw you walking across in front of my table with this, and I overheard you say, "Nobody knows what this is," and I shouted out, "I do!"

GUEST: (laughs) APPRAISER: It looks just like a small slant front desk.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: However, it's a music box.

GUEST: It's been in our family since 1957, and we actually have the original receipt from the seller, who was an elderly lady.

She sold it to my stepfather.

APPRAISER: The Regina Music Box Company was founded by a man named Gustave Brachhausen in 1889 in Germany, and within three years of founding the factory, he had expanded to Jersey City, New Jersey in 1892, where he began making cases for the parts for the insides were still being imported from Germany.

Within just a few years, all of the operations were made in New Jersey, but in a larger factory in Rahway, New Jersey.

This stylistically does date from the late 19th century and probably this case, and all of the works, were made in that Rahway, New Jersey factory.

In the late 19th century, people loved things that were whimsical and sort of secretive, and this you would not have necessarily known that this was a music box if you just walked into someone's parlor and saw it.

I searched through lots of records to try to find examples of this...

GUEST: (soft chuckle) APPRAISER: ...and I could not find this exact model anywhere.

So I think it's probably-- GUEST: Could be a good thing.

APPRAISER: I think it's a good thing.

I think it's probably a very rare example; now, the downside is that the music box market is, uh, not especially robust at the moment.

GUEST: I wouldn't think that's a hip thing to have in your house right now.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

The generation that was interested in those has aged out of the collecting phase of their lives...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...if they're even still here.

In the current market, this being such an unusual example, I think, realistically, you could put a, uh, $4,000 to $6,000 estimate maybe even a $5,000 to $8,000 auction estimate on it.

GUEST: Fantastic.

APPRAISER: Because it is such a rare example.

GUEST: That's fantastic, I appreciate that.

APPRAISER: So you think you want to crank it up for us?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And see how it sounds?

GUEST: Let's, let's, let’s uh let’s give it a little whirl, so to speak.

Let's see what it sounds like.

(music box playing)