Christian Greinacher asked in the last Digest about his serinettes.

1) For once, there is no accent in French in the spelling of serinettes
or perroquettes ...

2) It is difficult to give a precise date because these instruments
were made almost in the same way from the middle of the XVIIIth century
to 1914.

3) The tunes may be a good indication, although some old tunes (like
"La petite chasse"), dating from the XVIIIth century were used in
serinettes made after 1900.  The kind of music played (and specially
the ornamentation) and the sophistication of the notation are good
criteria.

4) I might perhaps find when these makers operated, but it would need
some research and take some time. And many wore the same names for
generations.  All three mentioned by Christian Greinacher are from
Mirecourt or the immediate area (East of France).

5) When you see "Departement des Vosges" (with an acute accent on the
first e of Departement), it means that the instrument was made (or more
precisely commercialized) after 1790, when the Departments were
created by the Assemblee Constituante, at the beginning of the French
Revolution.

Sorry for not being able to tell you more for the moment.  For general
considerations on serinettes, you may read the articles I wrote for the
MMD, dated 98.01.07 and 08.

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille   (Paris, France)
rouille@cnam.fr
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/