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Richard S. Cunanan
November 20, 2017    |    

Music That Sticks

Reuge, that music box maker extraordinaire, is crafting a new medium to reach the people.

Reuge is being honored by the national Swiss postal services, which is creating a special edition of stamps that includes no less than Reuge itself. Every year the Swiss postal service creates a special edition of stamps, and this year the stamps honor the region of Sainte-Croix, which is the cradle of Swiss music boxes, and of Reuge in particular.

The stamps are of two different kinds, both punched-out images that leave a certain part of the frame behind. (Sadly, it seems the name “Reuge” may be part of this remaining fragment.) One picture shows the charming Swiss Sainte-Croix valley, with its colorful houses and beautiful greenery. The other image is a close-up of a Reuge music box, including the rotating cylinder and the striking arms. It really is a wonderful tribute from the nation to a very special part of their heritage.

Indeed the two institutions are very nearly the same age. The Swiss postal service printed their very first stamps when they started up in the year 1850, just fifteen years before Reuge opened for business in 1865.

Reuge has been making musical devices in all the time since then, crafting the incredible mechanical singing boxes that make their work such a delight even today. Swiss mechanical music boxes are incredibly intricate creations, and they take many forms. One particularly intriguing example is the singing bird, a mechanical musical bird decorated to look like the real thing. These Swiss creations found their way to American shores at the end of the Second World War, when soldiers returning home brought back singing birds as a reminder of both their victory and, perhaps, of the new life they were about to begin.

In a wonderful touch, the Swiss stamps don’t actually say “Switzerland” on them. With four official languages, there are four different ways to say Switzerland – Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera and Svizra—but instead the Swiss postal services use the name “Helvetia” which is the female national personification of Switzerland.

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