Music box is a winding mechanical music instrument. It consists of metal prongs – a сhaser and removable disks with perforation. Revolving the disk touches the prongs of the chaser and extracts a sound. Using perforation a certain melody is applied on the disk and a centrifugal regulator makes the sounding smooth.

The music box exhibited in the museum was assembled in the late 19th century. On a metal pad there is a label by Műller Trading House, a large owner of the store of musical instruments. The exhibit was restored by the museum expert Oleg Kishkin in the I.E. Grabar All-Russian Art Restoration Center.

The wooden cover of the instrument is encrusted with a bouquet of spring flowers made in the manner of marquetry where a mosaic drawing is inlaid from the latched (to smoothness) pieces of wood of different colors and structure. The shades of wood are selected so that the drawing looks harmoniously.

The technique of marquetry sprang up during antique time, in Greece and Egypt. Around the 14th century it was revived by Italian craftsmen to be used when finishing the wall panels and furniture. At the same time a special machine for cutting thin sheets of wood – sawed veneer – was invented. Craftsmen cut the wooden pieces, put together an image from the set and glued it on a heavy warp. Sometimes they used details from ivory for encrustation and covered the article with mother-of-pearl.

With the invention of phonograph and later  gramophone  in 1877 music boxes gradually lost their popularity and practically fell into disuse. It was impossible to record a live voice on them and they failed to withstand competition.