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Help On Dating A 48B Crane Duet


Don Taylor

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I have a rosewood ended, metal buttoned Crane duet that I would like to date - if possible.

 

The right hand palm rest has "C & S 5753" stamped into its underside.

 

The only numbers that I can find on the inside are "L 360" on the left hand reed-pan and on the right-hand reed pan I think that there is another "360" split over two reed chambers. I can't be absolutely sure of the RHS numbers because they are partially covered by valves (but I am pretty sure).

 

Maybe the L in "L 360" is for left, which leaves a me with the number 360 on each reed pan.

 

Thx. Don.

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I have a rosewood ended, metal buttoned Crane duet that I would like to date - if possible.

 

The right hand palm rest has "C & S 5753" stamped into its underside.

 

The only numbers that I can find on the inside are "L 360" on the left hand reed-pan and on the right-hand reed pan I think that there is another "360" split over two reed chambers. I can't be absolutely sure of the RHS numbers because they are partially covered by valves (but I am pretty sure).

 

Maybe the L in "L 360" is for left, which leaves a me with the number 360 on each reed pan.

 

FWIW, my own similar concertina has "C&S 650", and its internally stamped number is 135. But I don't know what year it was made.

 

Here, here, here, and here are earlier threads that should be of interest.

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As someone guessed in one of the an earlier threads, the C&S numbers were inventory numbers used by Crane & Sons. The series was for all types of instruments sold by Crane, not just concertinas. I have serial numbers and descriptions for 20 Lachneal concertinas with C&S inventory numbers.

The lowest numbered pair: Lachenal No. 10 and C&S 107.

The highest numbered pair: Lachenal No. 693 and C&S08809

In all cases, the two series are in consistent order. That is, the higher the Lachenal serial number, the higher the C&S number.

 

Regarding the dating of Don Taylor's Lachenal No. 360, I would estimate circa 1903 for the year of manufacture. My guesses for production by year are: (1896: 5 Cranes); (1897: 25); (1898: 40); (1899:50); (1900-1910: 70-75 Cranes). The production picked up in 1900 due to more prominent advertising of Cranes (as played by Dutch Daly et al).

 

I know that the separate Lachanel serial number sets for Crane and Maccann duets goes at least past No. 867, because I have both a No. 867 46 key Maccann and a No. 867 48 key Crane. However, the separate Crane series may have gone as high as about No. 1200 by 1910 when the Buttersworth patent held by Crane expired. At that time, I think that the Maccann series was at about No. 3000. (I need to check these numbers!) Crane & Sons turned to other pursuits, and of course Lachenal introduced the Crane/Triumph under the auspices of the Salvation Army in 1912.

Incidentally, I have never seen a Crane duet with the label of some retailer other than C&S, Lachenal, or the Salvation Army.

Edited by Dowright
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Jim and Randy:

 

Thanks very much for this. It is nice to have something fairly definitive to say when folks ask about the age of an instrument.

 

Were the Salvation Army using Cranes in 1903?

 

I ask because the original green and white Lachenal bellows papers had been rather clumsily blacked over with something waxy, probably shoe polish. I read somewhere that the SA eschewed decoration so I assume that my Crane was once owned by a Salvationist.

 

Maybe I should have left them alone, but I am replacing the papers with some of Dave Elliott's nice black and gold Lachenal papers.

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Were the Salvation Army using Cranes in 1903?

 

Not generally anyway, they were still much more likely to be playing Anglos then.

 

 

I ask because the original green and white Lachenal bellows papers had been rather clumsily blacked over with something waxy, probably shoe polish. I read somewhere that the SA eschewed decoration so I assume that my Crane was once owned by a Salvationist.

 

If the "blacking up" was indeed done by a Salvationist, it might have been later when the instrument was secondhand.

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Salvation Army (SA) official endorsement of the Crane duet concertina came later, maybe as late as the introduction of the Triumph in 1912. In 1905, the SA published The Salvation Army Anglo-German and English Concertina Tutor (London: SA Publishing Offices, 1905). The Salvation Army Concertina is shown as a 26-key Anglo (Part I. I can tell that the illustration is of one made by George Jones). Part IV of the tutor is "The English Concertina." The tutor does not contain anything on duet concertinas.

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