Serinette
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)
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)
Artwork Details
- Title: Serinette
- Date: late 18th century
- Geography: France
- Culture: French
- Medium: Wood, metal
- Dimensions: Length: along spine 31.5 cm.
Depth: across spine 7.7 cm
Width: across cover 19.5 cm - Classification: Aerophone-Automatic
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
- Object Number: 89.4.952
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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