Exhibition in Yverdon 1885 Paillard, known as the company manufacturing the largest number of music boxes in a given year, presented a complete range of products, from handcrank boxes and fancy articles for children to the large music boxes between 2 and 800 francs, with all sorts of accompanying devices and placed in elaborate cabinets often with one or more drawers to store the interchangeable cylinders. (Piguet, Music Box Makers, 2004, p. 55-56) Ernest Paillard underlined “the brilliant success of this cantonal exhibition and the important role our watches and music boxes, amidst all the products of the Vaud industry!”. He also mentioned the satisfactory financial result for the manufacturers. It was the first time. This tendency would be confirmed two years later in Geneva with the coin-operated automata, which were destined to become a phenomenal success.“ (Piguet, Music Box Makers, 2004, p. 57) Adrien Lador, whose company was hardly more than four years old, exhibited for the first time “a selection of boxes and fancy objects to satisfy young people´s tastes, including a baby rattle, also with music, and small handcrank boxes costing 85 cents.” (Piguet, Music Box Makers, 2004, p. 56) César Aubert, mayor of Sainte-Croix at the time, exhibited “several boxes of different sizes, amongst which a very beautiful box with double cylinder giving a powerful sound, a piece called harmonie-flute, and a musical chalet.” Arthur Junod-Tarin showed a superb Oberland chalet with Duplex music box. As for Jules Cuendet, he exhibited a varied assortment of music boxes, from the small handcrank toy costing 1.25 francs to the large, twenty-four-tune boxes, amongst which “ an elegant flowerstand in carved wood, with music box and automata.” (Piguet, Music Box Makers, 2004, p. 56) Mermod Frères went to Yverdon with their most recent products, in particular the musical automata seen for the first time in Europe. Several large boxes in the shape of buffet-style dresser or table, decorated with moulding, cornices and columns, comprised automata playing and dancing to the sound of music. The mechanism could be seen through a mirrored panel, operated by a coin dropped into the appropriate slot. Lassueur. For the music box industry, it was the dawn of a new era which would reach its zenith with the station music boxes made by Auguste Lassueur around 1896. The Yverdon exhibition left a more positive impression than the previous ones. The jury chairman, J.-B. Dietrich, wrote: “We have observed the products of some major manufacturers of Sainte-Croix, made by mechanical process, by means of advanced, steam-operated tools. In all the models on exhibition, the execution of the musical arrangements is generally correct, the sound harmonius and perfect, the resonance clear. A few constructional defects have, however, been recorded.“ (Official exhibition record) (Piguet, Music Box Makers, 2004, p. 214) Jules Cuendet: “In Yverdon, Jules Cuendet exhibited a varied range of music boxes, from the small crankdriven toy selling for one franc twenty-five to twenty-four tune pieces, among which a flowerstrand in carved wood with wind instrument and automata, as well as a large box with interchangeable cylinders.” (Piguet, Music Box Makers, 2004, p. 57)     
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