DATE: Vintage, 1970s

Cool 1970s music box keychain in the form of a fan, decorated with a colourised Japonesque scene including a traditional temple, cherry blossom, and bamboo. The best part: the song is "Speak Softly Love", the love theme from the 1972 movie The Godfather (composed by Nino Rota and lyricised by Larry Kusik). Something of an unusual juxtaposition, really. Made by Sankyo who were - at the time - the world's leading creator of miniature music boxes, it remains in excellent condition and paired with the original presentation box. A rather charming portrait of a mother and son, dressed to the nines, inside the lid... were they Yakuza? Or just liked the tune? 

Rota's score for The Godfather was nominated for the 1973 Academy Award for Best Original Score, until the Academy realised that Rota had used a more comedic version of Speak Softly Love in an earlier Fellini movie (Fortunella, 1958) and disqualified it from consideration. Bizarrely, Rota's score for The Godfather II, won the 1974 award for best score, despite containing the same piece. That's showbiz, I guess.

MEASUREMENTS 

Music box: 5.9 x 3.6 x 1.6cm

Length of chain: 4.6cm

WEIGHT 

52.6g

MARKS 

Winder is marked SANKYO

CONDITION 

Very good, one or two small spots of tarnish to the back casing