Serinette
This tiny organ has three registers of pipes, stopped diapason, octave and fifteenth. It posses three additional barrels, which permit it to play a total of thirty tunes. The tunes are listed on a paper label inside the cover. There is no keyboard, but a pinned barrel is activated with a hand crank (which also pumps the bellows) in order to play a tune. Organs of this type were often used for teaching songs to birds.
Technical description: Rectangular wood case painted black with striping and floral designs, the lid top painted with a scene of hunters and a fountain, the interior with blue flowers on an orange background; three ranks of ten metal pipes each, two ranks open, the rear one stopped, two back ranks held by a rack covered with decorative paper; a crank protruding from the front right of case turns a wood worm and crank shaft that rotates the pinned and stapled wood barrel and pumps a double-fold feeder beneath a single fold reservoir; three stop levers extend through the left side of case; barrel slides on a bracket and has a 12 notch shift pin engaged by a drop latch, permitting tune selection; two extra barrels are in a separate box (b,c,d); paper label glued inside lid lists tunes on three barrels.
Technical description: Rectangular wood case painted black with striping and floral designs, the lid top painted with a scene of hunters and a fountain, the interior with blue flowers on an orange background; three ranks of ten metal pipes each, two ranks open, the rear one stopped, two back ranks held by a rack covered with decorative paper; a crank protruding from the front right of case turns a wood worm and crank shaft that rotates the pinned and stapled wood barrel and pumps a double-fold feeder beneath a single fold reservoir; three stop levers extend through the left side of case; barrel slides on a bracket and has a 12 notch shift pin engaged by a drop latch, permitting tune selection; two extra barrels are in a separate box (b,c,d); paper label glued inside lid lists tunes on three barrels.
Artwork Details
- Title: Serinette
- Maker: Ch. Denis
- Date: ca. 1800
- Geography: Mirecourt, Vosges, France
- Culture: French
- Medium: wood, various materials
- Dimensions: Overall: H. 27.1 x W. 37.3 x L. perpendicular to barrel 26.2cm (10 11/16 x 14 11/16 x 10 5/16in.)
- Classification: Aerophone-Automatic
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
- Object Number: 89.4.2137a–d
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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