By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

George Theders and one of his music boxes. (Enquirer file photo)

SHARONVILLE - When George Theders began collecting unusual music boxes in the 1950s, he could buy them for a pittance - sometimes straight from the parlors where they had stood for decades.

A carved chair with a music box in the seat. A wind-up musical Louis Vuitton monkey that nods its head, blinks and lifts a pipe to its mouth. A 10-foot-tall Limonaire Freres Waldkirch fairground organ made in Germany in 1908.

Eventually, collecting mechanical musical devices became an obsession for the Cincinnati man. His magnificent collection, which numbered some 200 pieces, required more and more space, and its maintenance consumed his time.

In 1987, Theders bought the historic, 12-room Knights of Columbus Council Hall in Northside - a veritable museum - where he lived alone, tinkering with his music boxes until he died last summer at the age of 87.

On Sunday, the nationally known collection - estimated to be worth between $710,000 and $1.2 million - will be auctioned at Sharonville Convention Center. Collectors from Germany, England and Australia have inquired about the sale, according to Forsythe's Auction Service. Some plan to fly in from Europe, while others will place absentee bids.

IF YOU GO

The George E. Theders Trust Collection auction of mechanical musical devices will be Sunday. Time: Starts at noon. Preview: 2-8 p.m. and 9 a.m.-noon Saturday. Where: Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road, Sharonville. Cost: Free and open to the public. Information: View some of the pieces online at www.fforsytheauctions.com. For a full-color catalogue, call (513) 531-9575.

The boxes played "almost any kind of music that you wanted," says Theders' friend, Frank Lienesch of Ross. "The cylinder box upstairs, I think, played a whole opera."

Theders used to go around and play the boxes, one by one, to keep them in working order. He often showed them off to visitors.

"It was similar to a museum," Lienesch explains. "He used to give tours through it to various people. People were constantly calling, wanting to go through the place."

A different era

Perhaps gone are the days when collectors can acquire valuable pieces at a bargain price, as Theders did over the years.

The proliferation of online auction sites like eBay, and the excitement created by Antiques Roadshow, have prompted people to root through their attics and cellars in search of the elusive piece of "junk" that will bring a small fortune.

Indeed, the $6.5 billion collectibles industry - which began in earnest after World War II, when people realized more time and disposable income - became something of a frenzy during the 1990s. Sellers discovered that nostalgics were willing to pay a pretty penny for, say, a Mrs. Beasley doll with her plastic granny glasses still affixed to her face, and sellers accordingly inflated the asking price.

A lifelong collector

Born in 1915, Theders was a regular guy who grew up in College Hill, graduated from Hughes High School and served in World War II.

He was a lifelong collector who enjoyed tinkering with things like model trains, motorbikes and cars.

When he came home from the war, he bought an established decorating and remodeling interest, which often sent him in search of rare and fine furniture for his clients.

Sometime in the 1950s, Theders discovered some dusty metal cylinders in a smokehouse that belonged to his in-laws in Lewisburg, Ky. The cylinders - picture the old devices that would produce music on a player piano - piqued his interest and he inquired about the instrument they would have been played on.

The instrument, an Edison cylinder player that belonged to his wife's grandmother, had long since become obsolete. Theders retrieved it from storage and took it home. Because he could find no one to repair it, he taught himself to do it.

It was the beginning of a passion that consumed him for the rest of his life.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com