This is a small tortoise shell necessaire. A necessaire is a box that contains the 'necessaries' for sewing. This one is in the Palais Royale style and dates from around 1840.
The box has ivory trim and small ball feet as well as a carrying handle. On the front of the box are 2 mother-of-pearl buttons. The left button slides left and right to select one of two tunes in the musical movement. The right button slides right to start the music and left to stop it at the end of the song.
Here are the sewing implements in their tray. Each implement is placed in its own fitted 'bed' on the tray.
There is a steel mirror in the underside of the lid. The tray is removable to access the musical movement.
The spring motor on musical movement is wound from underneath the box.
With the tray removed, you can see the musical movement.
Notice that the teeth are made in sections, each containing four teeth. In the early days of musical box making, the teeth were made in sections of one, two, three, or more teeth. After about 1850 or so, techniques were well developed for making a single piece combs.
