Serinette
Not on view
The serinette is a mechanical musical insturment with a pinned barrel that is activated with a hand crank (which also pumps a bellows mechanism. When activated, the barrel turns and a tune is played on pipes. This small type of barrel organ was typically used to teach songs to birds.
Technical description: rectangular wood box shaped like a thick book, with "spine" hinged and opening to reveal barrel organ mechanism operated by turning crank extending from "cover;" wood barrel pinned with brass staples (ten tunes); nine metal flue pipes; wedge-shaped bellows mounted below wedge shaped reservoir below barrel; pipes sounded by stickers (missing) running between the pipes, depressing valves in windchest when depressed by levers above barrel; a strip of parchment bearing plain chant notation is glued to the "book" edge opposite the spine. (Laurence Libin 6 Oct. 77)
