For your consideration is a National Calliope Model B in excellent condition. The New Tone Calliope, "America's Finest Calliope" Kansas City, Mo. This 53-note calliope is extremely rare, and has better sound than a typical 43-note Tangley Calliope/Calliophone. It features a large roll player system w/ a Mechanical Systems Inc. keyboard, and plays automatically or manually. The brass pipes appear to be original. It is complete with the key to the door, wheels, and blower. It comes with the roll inside, which plays. All the notes work on both the manual mode and auto mode.
Overall, this calliope is in excellent used condition and is a must for the serious collector or keyboard player. It plays well and sounds great, and it only needs a minor tune-up at most.
A modern replica of this rare National calliope with roll player costs $10,790 from Miner Company, the modern builder of Tangley and National calliope models. We have only seen one original National Model B 53-note calliopes come up for sale throughout the many years that we have been dealing in musical instruments, and it was priced much, much higher than this one.
Please note that the leaning of the right pipe has been corrected since the pictures were taken.