Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: B.—Serinette details
![[image]](http://www.fromoldbooks.org/IllustratedLondonNews-Vol56/pages/377-Serinette/377-Serinette-q75-642x747.jpg "[image]")
Notes:
“The serinette, or French bird-organ, was employed by ladies to teach airs to their little singing-birds, serins or finches; this one is of the seventeenth century, 11 in. by 8 in., made of beech-wood, veneered with satin-wood, and inlaid with marquetry of coloured woods representing musical instruments and foliage.” (p. 368)
A serinette is a miniature French barrel organ, also called a bird-organ, which plays small wind pipes. The name bird organ comes from the way that these organs were used to teach birds to sing. Serinettes existed that could play four or more different tunes.
