Mills Novelty Co. (Chicago, Illinois)

The Mills Violano-Virtuoso, combining a piano with a real violin in a lovely Oak cabinet, was introduced around 1910 and in 1915 began to be marketed with great zeal. From then until 1929 about 4,100 left the Chicago factory of the Mills Novelty Company, this including about 3,800 of the single-violin model, as presented here, and about 300 with two violins. The present model was wildly popular in its day, especially for use in restaurants, confectionery shops and hotel lobbies. Most were equipped with a nickel slot. The mechanisms were well made and stood up under intense use. As a result, nearly a thousand still exist today, making it the most available of larger size American automatic musical instruments.

The Mills Novelty Company, the modern successor to the original company, has developed a MIDI system that interfaces with the original mechanisms and permits a large program of music to be played from a laptop computer, in addition to using paper rolls if desired. This example, in a beautiful quartered oak cabinet, was discovered in Los Angeles. Formerly in the Ames, Collar and Fischer collections, it was restored in 1998 by Haughawout Music Co. It is an early production machine with a beveled glass pane between the violin and piano, a feature found only in early instruments, which certainly contributes to its rarity. It is in excellent condition. A dozen rolls and a MIDI system with hundreds of tunes are included. 41x64x29 inches.