Reuge - Music box - Switzerland - 1950-1960 - Carillon Reuge

This carousel cigarette holder fits the economic, social, and lifestyle climate of post-war Europe (between the 1950s and 1970s), a period characterized by the economic boom and the desire to redefine domestic luxury.

Its birth and diffusion stem from a historic link between Italian artistic craftsmanship and Swiss mechanical excellence:
The vast majority of these objects were the fruit of a cross-border collaboration:
• External structure (Italy): Italian foundries and artisan workshops (especially Tuscan and Lombard) produced the outer shell. They drew on the local abundance of noble materials such as onyx and marble, pairing them with brass or bronze alloys that recalled the splendors of European historical styles (Baroque, Rococo, Empire).
• The mechanical heart (Switzerland): The inner carillons were imported from Switzerland, an undisputed homeland of precision micro-mechanisms. Enduring companies like Reuge (founded in Sainte-Croix in 1865) or Lador supplied the small lamellar metal cylinders capable of reproducing popular melodies of the era (from film soundtracks to famous waltzes).
By the mid-20th century, smoking was not regarded as a harmful vice as it is today, but rather as a symbol of emancipation, elegance, and social status.
• Welcoming guests with a cigarette was part of the etiquette of good society.
• These mechanical "carousels" were designed to astonish: the act of offering tobacco became a small theatrical spectacle in which music accompanied the choreographed opening of automated doors.
With the progressive decline of smoking in domestic settings toward the end of the century, many of these objects were repurposed or converted. The internal compartments (originally sized for unfiltered cigarettes of the era) proved perfect for holding lipstick tubes or small jewelry. For this reason, today in antiques and collectibles catalogs they are often described interchangeably in both ways.
The carillon, once wound, plays music, while the movement is in need of repair, and there is damage to the upper arc as shown in the photo.
Photos are an integral part of the description.
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