Jump to content

48 Key Wheatstone Steel Reeds Circa 1860 For Sale


tradbuzztrish

Recommended Posts

Hi Guys

Whether you know it or not you can invoked one of the most important of female emotions known to humanity: CURIOSITY. This is now more about the finding out than the destination of the instrument. I will acquire the necessary expertise and proceed to investigate further. I will take some photographs and maybe I could drip feed the information gleaned to whet the appetites of CNET users.

Watch this space :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Guys

EUREKA

You were right the number is wrong. I opened the monster and lo and behold I found the stamp. No 23102. I will post photos of her interior and a close up of the label. The plot thickens. The WiFi in France, Canada, New South Wales and the Baltic Coast will be red hot tonight

Trish

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way... the $200 Wheatstone I mentioned earlier turned out not to be an Aeola etc but it is a really nice 1891 Model No.2 with nickel and what appears to be silver trim. Pretty fancy looking! Serial 21205. Looks pretty rough from the photos but everything is there except the thumb strap screws which Mark Adey says he can make for me, so no problem. Two screw steel reeds untouched!!! And to top off everything... the guy sent it to me in the mail from Quebec today! I thought he was just getting me a shipping quote. Now that's trust!!! That's worth some extra cash right there!!!

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23102... The plot thickens! I can't quite read all the writing. The experts on here will know. Isn't this serial one of the ones from the missing ledger?

 

How about a close up of the label Trish? Now I'm curious :rolleyes: I tried to enhance it but this is the best I can do.

post-10679-0-02384800-1436563803_thumb.jpg

Edited by 4to5to6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please correct me on this, I may be wrong again, but I believe all the ledgers containing info for serial numbers 21,354 (Dec, 1891) to 24,999 (May, 1910) are not available (roughly 3645 units over 18.5 years or 197 units per year). Doing some math (assuming constant production) makes 23102 circa 1900.

 

I just made up this way of finding the year for the missing ledger years... there is probably a more official way:

 

(Serial - 21355) divided by 197 plus 1892 = circa year (The John Method) :D

 

((23102 - 21,355) / 197) + 1892 = 1900

 

As a test:

21,353 - 21,355 / 197 + 1892 = 1891.9

Serial number 21,353 is Dec, 1891

 

25001 - 21,355 / 197 + 1892 = 1910.5

Serial number 25,001 is May, 1910

 

It works!!!

 

 

Date also lines up with "Her Majesty" on the logo as King Edward started his reign in Jan, 1901.

 

"No. 5" is most likely the model number but I'm not knowledgable enough to know all the features. I keep hoping Chris Algar will write all the vast knowledge in his head down on paper one day.

 

You can look the model numbers up along with short descriptions in the old price lists available online :

 

http://www.concertina.com/pricelists/wheatstone-english/

 

The two closest price lists are 1859 and 1915 so a bit off from 1900 but it should be a bit of help to you anyway.

 

John

Edited by 4to5to6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations, Trish. Mystery solved. Indeed it is a model 5E (E for English, A (or AG) for Anglo (Anglo-German), though I'm not sure that Wheatstone used those designations until some time later in their catalogues, but only in the ledgers....sometimes.

 

John is correct about the missing ledger. Pity, but I agree with the logic of his calculation of the build date, and imho the quality should far exceed that of an 1864 model. Perhaps the person who inscribed the number on the action board had a touch of dyslexia that day; but he did get some of the numbers right....

 

Now the bad news....I consider it fairly unlikely that you will find a decent, playable Wheatstone anglo of that quality for the sort of money your English might fetch. 48 odd years ago, sure; I bought my very first anglo (a Jeffries no less!) because I couldn't aford a Wheatstone English. Logically a 48 key English is a more complex and expensive instrument to make than say a 30 key anglo and *should* command a higher price for an equivalent quality. However, the subsequent increase in interest in Irish music particularly led to a reversal of values which now tends to see second-hand anglos selling for far more than an equivalent English. Certainly the prices of anglos has come down a little since the Celtic Tiger ceased to roar so loudly, but the price differential still remains.

 

Sorry to rain on your parade, and by all means look around and something may show up, but a bit of a long shot I'm afraid. Hope you get lucky!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you to all you CNET contributors who engaged in this project. I know I will eventually get around to learning the fingering. I hope this will be of benefit to more CNET newbies like me when they get confused about originality and authenticity of instruments.

 

Long Live the CNET

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...