Pasadena musician’s life filled with toys and song.

Entering Roberta Wilcox’s living room is like stepping into a musical curiosity shop.

Ceramic clowns play violins in a crammed glass cabinet, and a frog of Austrian bronze fiddles under a toadstool covered with beaver hair--an ornate brush for cleaning rusty pins before Wilcox snapped it up at an antique show.

A favorite theme--music--is apparent, from the sterling silver statuette of 19th-Century violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini to an orchestra of Austrian bronze elephant musicians mounted on an onyx bandstand, each delicately painted animal no larger than a thumb.

“If it has a violin on it or is musical, I’m immediately interested,” the ebullient music teacher said, her silver violin lapel pin flashing. Wilcox founded and manages the Pasadena Summer Youth Chamber Orchestra, which will perform at the Mozart Festival in San Luis Obispo in August.

Even her telephone is in the form of a baby grand piano; each number on the keyboard chimes when struck. Bottles and vases shaped like violins line the window ledges. Magnets in the shape of musical notes dot the refrigerator, and by the door stands an umbrella covered with treble clefs.

But most precious of all is a collection of seven miniature violins, the smallest a fully functional instrument measuring 5 inches.

That violin, inlaid with ivory, is part of a set of three exquisite miniatures crafted by Italian violin maker Peter Tatar who, according to Wilcox, made four sets. Of the other three sets, Wilcox said, one is at the Vatican, another went to former President Dwight Eisenhower, and the last is in a museum in Cremona, Italy, where Tatar made them in the 1950s.

Wilcox said she was so awe-struck by “my most prized collection,” she did not attempt to play them until a month after buying them. “It was like they belonged in a museum.”

The largest of the seven, made in the 1920s in Czechoslovakia, measures 13 1/2 inches. The remaining three come from Germany, two of them identical 7 1/2-inch instruments by Mittenwald violin maker Hans Nebel.

She acquired all seven about two years ago from retired violinist Irving Jaffa, who performed around the country with Fred Waring’s television variety show for four years. He bought the entire collection from Tatar about 20 years ago. Wilcox bought them from Jaffa in 1987.

“When I saw them I wanted to have them right away,” recalls Jaffa, 77, who now lives in San Diego. He played them at his waist instead of cramping them under his chin.

After playing on a concert-sized violin, “I would take them (the miniatures) out of my pockets one at a time,” Jaffa said. “People would come backstage to see me play for them--they couldn’t believe it.” Struck by arthritis in his hands eight years ago, he sold his “children” because, he said, “what’s the point in keeping them if I couldn’t play anymore?”

Jaffa said he was grateful to find in Wilcox “somebody to carry on. Otherwise it would have just died with me.” Wilcox and her sculptor-husband David regularly entertain as The Strolling Two at private parties and for businesses in the Pasadena area. “David sings in five languages (Irish tunes are their forte) and I play jigs and reels on the violin,” she said. The little violins are played as the grand finale.

“These just steal the show,” she said. “People forget all about the fact that we sang.”

Wilcox gives private violin lessons in addition to teaching orchestra at Field and Cleveland elementary schools in Pasadena. She also directs the 80-instrument loan program of the Pasadena Area Youth Music Council. The nonprofit organization promotes music appreciation among San Gabriel Valley youngsters through concerts and the loan program.

To accommodate her growing collection of musical instruments and collectibles, David Wilcox recently built additional shelves in their home to clear items off the floor. But the cleared space was quickly filled. Wilcox said her collection gets frequent boosts with gifts from students and friends.

“I can’t complain because I buy her everything she wants,” said David, grinning, who made her a violin-shaped stool for Christmas.

The collection has grown to include teddy bears, but even that collection is touched with music. It started with Bearthoven, for whom she bought a miniature piano. Later came flashy concert pianist Libearace, frilly shirt and all. She now has three garbage bags filled with stuffed animals in the attic, plus about 30 more stuffed animals scattered on wagons, benches, ledges and across the floor of the living room.

“It’s just lots of fun to never grow up,” said Wilcox.