Music Box

Mr. T’s eldest daughter and her daughter surprised us with a visit today.  This morning we took them to the café for a slap up breakfast so that J could catch up with her sister-in-law, who runs the café and after that we spent a lovely afternoon at Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury.  The House was as stunning as ever and one of my favourite pieces which the 2nd Lord Berwick bestowed upon his wife, Sophia Dubochet, was this little Ormolu music box ……………

 

…………… Anthropomorphic animals can be quite mesmerizing, but what can be said about the chained monkey perched within this ormolu music box made in Geneva in the early 19th century? The music box is actually an automaton equipped with an intricate mechanism that enables the monkey to turn his head while conducting music with an ivory baton.

The music that is played is an example of a traditional Swiss melody known as a ‘Ranz des Vaches’. Melodies like this were played on horns by Alpine herdsmen to coax their cattle to be milked or to move up the mountains. So evocative of Switzerland were these melodies that Swiss soldiers in French regiments were forbidden under penalty of death from singing them, lest the tunes might encourage desertion. Today, the nostalgia-inducing melody can be heard playing in the Sultana Room at Attingham Park.

Attingham Park © National Trust / Claire Reeves

 

We’ve just come back from having yet more food at a very nice Restaurant  -

The diet starts tomorrow, AGAIN!