A couple of weeks ago an unusual vanishing birdcage popped up on eBay. It’s a brass cage made in the Simms style (like the Milson Worth Silver Meteor vanishing Cage). Based on the pictures on the listed it looked mostly homemade, but there were a couple of things that didn’t look like an amateur made it, an this was interesting to me. It was listed at less than an hundred bucks, so I bought it.
When it arrived, the first thing that I notice was the solder blobs on the bar looked giant and sloppy in the pictures were much smaller and fairly well done. The cage needs some work, there’s a bunch of corrosion on one corner of it.
The solder on the tops and bottoms of the bars on the sides of the were really smooth and the side bars were soldered shut. The cage would stand up on its own, but also collapses really quickly. I wasn’t expecting this cage to be as good as it is.
Another interesting thing about this cage is the clip where the pull would attach.
It’s a hook, which implies that whoever used it was hooking up to it during their act/show. This hook feels like it was adding later by the user an not the maker. While the hook is thought out, the part that sticks out of the top of the bar is bent backwards to reduce snagging, it doesn’t feel quite like the same build as the rest of the cage.
If you know anything about this cage or who made it, please let me know!
-Louie
I don’t know who made the one you have , but I have recently acquired two of these smaller, inexpensive cages. One of the cages has the wire loops which hold the three vertical side bars wrapped tightly wrapped around the horizontal cross-bars , which is made in India by Sam Dahal/Funtime Magic, compared to my Milson-Worth cage which has the wire loops soldered to the horizontal cross-bar . The soldered edges on the M-W cage are smooth, whereas the Dahal/Funtime cage with the wire wrapped around the horizontal bars has rough edges which need to be filed down and/or covered with solder so they don’t snag. The Dahal cage I have is larger than the Milson-Worth cage.
See these photos comparing the two cages:
https://i.imgur.com/ofXjIue.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LmNuzpo.jpg
If it were not for the rough snag points of the wire loops I think I would prefer the Dahal/Funtime cage to the Milson-Worth. I like that the Dahal/Funtime cage is slightly larger. (although, being all brass it is heavier) I did use a file on the rough points of the wrapped wire loops and that helped a bit , but I am intending to cover over those rough points with solder so those edges are completely smooth.
That cage design isn’t bad, however it does leave a lot of spots that can get rough that you need to pay attention to!
the larger cage plays better onstage, but the smaller one sits better in my sleeve!
Louie