A wooden platform with faux-rosewood finish is decorated with beautifully painted flowers and scroll on top and sides. On the top is arranged a lovely vignette featuring a lady seated at the pianoforte while her music instructor sits nearby, and a little child dances in front. The pianoforte is beautifully decorated in the same manner as the box, the lady has a porcelain head with sculpted black hair, block torso, wooden hands, and an original costume, the instructor has a paper mache head, body and limbs, and is wearing a well-decorated silk costume with long tails. They each sit upon a fancy salon chair. The little carved wooden child has loosely jointed limbs and is suspended from the floor by a thin metal rod that allows her to pivot as though dancing. The original tune label is affixed to the underside listing two tunes in ink script: Cher der Bischofe a Afrikanerin, and Frohliches Weiderschen Walser. The label is numbered Zahl 45874 and musik 3766. There is also a pencil script notation with names on the underside.
Movements: The lady runs her hands across the piano keys in a realistic manner, while the instructor waves his teaching rod and nods his head in time to the music. The little girl dances and twirls about. Music plays, of an especially fine quality.
Historical References: The Rzebitschek family of Prague were small but industrious makers of music boxes and musical automata in Prague during the mid-19th century. An identical piece (except for decorations and lacking the dancing child) is known to have the Rzebitschek imprint on the comb; this piece has not been examined for that signature, but is indubitably from the same hand. Circa 1850.