A "real" Cajun accordion is any accordion made by a Cajun.

What you have is a single row 10 button diatonic, bisonoric aerophone.

I can't see the "stops", "registers" used to change the configuration of the opening of the various reeds...

How many of the pull levers are there at the top of the box ?

If you read what flatfoot said its got 2 stops and I think its obvious to everyone that this is not a 4 voice box or a cajun accordion and probably predates cajun built accordions by a number of decades.
But if the fella wants to have a dabble at learning cajun tunes and this box is his starting point, well its not going to hurt. Not everyone can go out and spend 2 grand on a whim. I bet in the past some really good cajun and creole musicians had to make do with just a harmonica to begin with!

I disagree. A Hohner 114 is a real cajun accordion and was quite popular. Any single row diatonic in C should be able to play cajun music.

Exactly, if you have 10 buttons in the diatonic scale and the instrument is playable then you can start having a go.
These days you can even play diatonic 1 row tunes on an i pad or phone- not my cup of tea, but at least it'll get the fingers going.

HI Guys, Its pretty old, late 1800s, has two stops (which arent attached to anything - just for show i guess) and as far as i can tell its in E! I cant even play my banjo along with it! oh well it sounds ok and is fun to learn. Ive not attempted any cajun yet - im learning The Irish Rover - but once i get the whole coordination thing sorted i'll be back here murdering your favourite tunes ... in E!

And hey AJ, what do you mean by a four voice box? just interested in case i take this up seriously. all the best, john

I think that AJ is writing about a Cajun Accordion.
A normal one row Cajun accordion has four reeds for each tone/note you can play for the pull and the push , so there are 80 reeds in a Cajun Accordion in 40 plates. ( I hope these are the right words for it )
Your beautiful oldie have two reeds for every note.( I suppose)

Flat johnny,
Welcome here!
Cool old box. It has pearl-oid buttons like the old Hohners. I have several old boxes like this. The reason it only has one "bar" in the bellows is because it has so few reeds to feed. These old boxes went from 1 stop and evolved into 4 stops in the newer CAJUN built ones, with bigger and longer bellows to feed the additional reed banks.