Located in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, Le Reuge has earned an unsurpassed reputation for being the most high-end producer and marketer of music-boxes worldwide. In all, 80 craftsmen are solely specialised in decorating and finishing the wood or metal-inlay, along with assembling the engine. The task requires hundreds of working hours, and the patience of Job.
All the colours and patterns on the music-box are a product of diverse shades of wood, intricately chosen and pieced together like a puzzle. “We can assemble up to 1,500 types of wood into one music-box. In Artemis alone, 18 different woods – some inherently scented – ranging from Indian Rosewood to Pear-Tree, are selected by our practiced cabinetmakers. They repair defects like rust, while tending to delicate scares filled with history,” says Kupper Kurt, the company’s managing director.
In the case of these two vintage collections, Singing Bird is more aged, with the cage-like pieces epitomising the time-honoured attention to detail you get with Le Reuge. Always in pairs, these birds are artificial with real feathers, and open their beaks melodically to the music – one in alto and the other in soprano – while moving around. Most traditional textures are wood and wood-inlay but the design itself is never painted over.
In short, the craftsman glues the scrupulously cut-out veneers in place and dips them into hot sand for more textured shading. Sanded down and wiped with alcohol for a semi-glazed feel, the model is ready for its finishing stages. The ‘puzzle’ is then pieced together according to the hues and shades of the semi-glazed wood cut-outs, a feat that requires incredible accuracy, and is the most time-consuming aspect of the process. Finally, the chef d’œuvre is ready to be sanded down one last time before the varnishing is applied.
The larger music-boxes from the 1865 collection (the year the company was founded by watchmaker Charles Reuge) are sometimes made to look like desks, their drawers ideal for extra cylinders carrying up to four melodies each. Imagine the cylinder being a compact disk, made of five thousand little sticks, all stacked together in the shape of a porcupine and functioning as ten fingers playing the piano.
“Virtually any song that can be played on a piano – not a trumpet – can be personalised onto a cylinder. Whenever you are bored with a cylinder, you can open that drawer and change the four songs that you are listening to,” offers Kurt. And if your music-box is not large enough to contain drawers, a particular box can be ordered for cylinder storage. Some music-boxes are large enough to carry up to fifteen cylinders all at once – that’s about sixty sweet sounding songs.
Interestingly, the Middle East market is most avid about custom-ordering large pieces. In order to mark anniversaries, the birth of a newly born child, or other special occasions, Middle Eastern clients give very detailed specifications on design, wood quality and music preference, according to Kurt. One loyal customer wanted a photo of their beloved racing horse’s head to be drawn with wood cut-outs into the lid of the music-box. “Although we have very select distributors in Europe and America, our Middle Eastern clients order much larger music-boxes,” says Kurt, “which is why there is no point in having a distributor for such elite prototypes,” explaining the vacuum in a dedicated dealer in the region.
Part of Le Reuge’s undeniable appeal is how detached it remains from all the trappings of mass-marketing. “Those that order our music-boxes actually make the extra effort to research, ask around, and get their hands on one of our pieces. We establish a personal friendship with them because they appreciate attention to detail just like we do,” says Kurt. When it comes down to it, there is nothing better than getting your hands on something that you really set your sights on. Something made to your specific liking, and which unlike your iPod, has proven to be timeless.
Prices range from 400 USD to 95,000 USD.
Contact
Reuge
Saint Croix, Switzerland
Tel + 41 24 455 2222
HYPERLINK "http://www.reuge.com" www.reuge.com
