Zimbalist “Taj Mahal” Music Box With Thorens Swiss Movement and Hidden Compartment

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On offer is a unique vintage Taj Mahal music and cigarette/jewelry box created by the renowned American maker Fred Zimbalist … Read more On offer is a unique vintage Taj Mahal music and cigarette/jewelry box created by the renowned American maker Fred Zimbalist (1909–2003). Known for his highly collectible, ornate metalwork, Zimbalist regularly combined handcrafted Indian metal casings with top-tier mechanical movements.
Zimbalist was a Russian-born immigrant who briefly worked for the Thorens company in Switzerland—the source of this item’s mechanical musical movement. He went on to found his own music box company in Cleveland, Ohio after World War II.
The maker uniquely commissioned artisans in India to hand-craft, chase and engrave heavily detailed brass and bronze structures modeled after world landmarks. Because they were built entirely by hand, no two pieces are identical.
This specific piece features a heavily hand-engraved brass body with a rich patina, floral motifs, and a raised central structure mimicking the iconic domes and minarets of India's Taj Mahal. Measuring 9" high by 9.75" wide and 9.75" deep, this is the larger, highly substantial model variant produced by the company, typically weighing around 8 pounds unpacked.
The lid, bearing the Taj, opens to reveal a high-quality mechanical musical movement manufactured by Thorens, widely considered a gold standard in vintage audio and music box engineering. This movement is pinned to play the classic tune “Irish Lullaby.”
This is a "lift-top" automated music box. When wound from the underside and unlatched, the music plays automatically when the lid is raised and pauses when the lid is pressed shut. The open interior cavity serves as a decorative storage chest, historically utilized for cigarettes or jewelry.
The underside’s foil label sources the music box from All Wound Up, a former specialty novelty gift shop located inside the historic MGM Grand Hotel in Reno, Nevada. This hotel opened in 1978 and later became the Reno Hilton in 1986, dating the retail sale of this specific souvenir box squarely to the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Now wouldn’t this be fun as a surprise presentation for a marriage proposal, a few rubies, or a passage to India to visit the original—with a musical accompaniment to go with it? Shah Jahan would have understood.
Signature/Maker’s mark: For the music movement, Thorens (photo #5).


Signature/Maker’s mark: For the music movement, Thorens (photo #5). See less