Can anyone tell me how to clean this if possible :) it works although I am not 100% what its use is

I have another one my mother left me although it’s much smaller & no mirror under the lid & it’s purple ...Thanks Everyone

 

It's a musical/music box powder(makeup) tin... most examples I see of this for sale online state that they are Victorian. I don't know if that's accurate or not.

 

It's a musical powder box, sometimes used for jewelry as loose powder is not as commonly used now. Probably dates to late 1940's-50's.

 

Forgive me for asking - but how do you know "it works" if you don't know what it's for? How many parts are there?

EDIT: now that I see the second post (having left the window open while trying to find Silverite) my question is irrelevant.

 

With a postal code, they are certainly not Victorian. Here's a company history.

http://keithwright.ca/Thorens/Thorenspage.html

Debora

 

Very good point... from what I'm reading, two digit postal codes were introduced in 1943 and were used through the early 60s.

 

Thank you all for the input and the link is fascinating - the other one I have is musical also , although has wooden ball feet without mirror , and did not have Thorens on the bottom .

 

As to your question re cleaning, these boxes were generally aluminum and if pitted, there is not much you could to to remedy that. I would take an old toothbrush, dipped in detergent water and gently scrub, avoiding the center medallion to not get water under. After rinsing, a brisk dry with a non-lint cloth is probably the best you could do to improve the appearance. A go over with a sunshine cloth probably wouldn't hurt.

 

Since your initial question was how to clean, I will say that there is no silver in the metal of which this box was made, so I wouldn't bother with silver polish. Searching for others online reveals that most, but not all, all this rather dull gray surface with bands of something shinier. A few have a painted (?) color other than grey, but it's hard to say whether those were made that way or were painted to spruce them up.

Some other kind of metal polish, like Brasso or NeverDull, might work to remove all those dark spots.

 

Mine has that same surface; it belonged to my grandmother. They were a popular item for a few years. The aluminum goes dark eventually, and the pitting is pretty well normal.

 

Thank you all again !! Knowledge is everything to me now as I didn't pay much attention as a youngster HaHa!! Oh what comes with age