Lachenal 20B Anglo #182489 With 1/1/16 Inscription

[nkgibbs]

Dear Fellow C.netters,

 

I recently bought a Lachenal 20 button Anglo numbered 182489 and after looking at Stephen Chambers' (196865 sold in 1926) Wes Williams' (1926-27) and William Meredith's (((182489-140375) /2165) + 1908 = 1927) excellent dating pieces on C.net and elsewhere, reckoned that its date was circa 1926.

 

It was therefore surprising that there was a pencil inscription on the bottom of the action pan "Jct H 1/1/16" (not sure about the letters……see below).

 

Maybe the concertina was made ten years before being sold but this seems unlikely?

 

What do you think?

 

Best regards

 

Neil

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2015 by nkgibbs

[Wolf Molkentin]

It was therefore surprising that there was a pencil inscription on the bottom of the action pan "Jct H 1/1/16" (not sure about the letters……see below).

 

Maybe the concertina was made ten years before being sold but this seems unlikely?

 

What do you think?

 

My guess would be that the instrument has been assembled in 1926 but parts of it made earlier...

[nkgibbs]

Thanks for your comment B.E.S.

 

I have just been catching up on forum reading and see the Wes has a newer serial number/date list on C.net that clearly places #182489 in the range #172001-187400: 1904-1918

 

So that clears that up !

 

Best regards,

Neil

[JimLucas]

It was therefore surprising that there was a pencil inscription on the bottom of the action pan "Jct H 1/1/16" (not sure about the letters……see below).

 

Maybe the concertina was made ten years before being sold but this seems unlikely?

Agreed. Extremely unlikely.

 

Consider the following possibilities:

• It's not a construction or repair date for the instrument, but the birth date of the individual (probably not the first owner) whose initials appear above it.
• Someone carelessly wrote the wrong digit(s). A recent news story in Sweden was about a man who made an error in writing his own national ID number, with the result that someone else got his 70 thousand kronor ($8300, €7600, £5600) tax refund.
• The instrument previously (if that has any meaning) belonged to Dr. Who, and the date is from work done in 2016 or some other century. (In that case, I suppose it could even be 1916.)

Edited to add: I just saw what you posted while I was writing the above. So an ordinary explanation is sufficient... but not necessary.

Edited March 25, 2015 by JimLucas

[Dowright]

The dating is way, way off base. I have enough evidence to confidently state that the concertina was made in about 1909.

Caution: Misinterpreting just one handwritten inscription as an original purchase date--rather than what is really a repair/retune date, can lead to really bad estimates of the date of manufacture. Such misinterpretation appears in one or more of the sources posted at concertina.net, which you have cited.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Dowright

[wes williams]

Thanks for your comment B.E.S.

 

I have just been catching up on forum reading and see the Wes has a newer serial number/date list on C.net that clearly places #182489 in the range #172001-187400: 1904-1918

 

So that clears that up !

 

Best regards,

Neil

 

I'm totally in agreement with what Dowright has written above. The newer list was created around 5 years ago, based on Dowright's serial number database at that time, and attempted to provide after and before year ranges of serial, so its generally more accurate than any previous estimate. But 5 years later, I'd be much more happy to go with c.1909.

[nkgibbs]

Dear Jim, Dowright and Wes,

 

Very interesting……is the latest database online somewhere?

 

Best regards,

Neil