The invention of these marvellous pieces of mechanism dates from about
the middle of the eighteenth century.
When they first appeared they were so highly praised that they were
immediately bought by the principal Courts of Europe, and it is only
later, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that the very high
class of people could acquire the rare specimen that came now and then
on the market.—
The characteristic of the antique singing bird snuff boxes, is that the
bird, when singing and moving its wings, opens its beak, when turning
the head. It is unfortunate to say, that modern watchmakers have not
acquired the skilfulness of their predecessors, and that in modern boxes
this triple movement can no more be obtained. This is, as a matter of
fact, one of the first means of distinguishing an antique bird box, from
a modern one.—
[Illustration: