Georgi & Vitak Music Co.

[Dave D]

I have a large square concertina with the Georgi & Vitak Co. name on it and the model name is Pearl Queen.

It measures 8.75 x 9.5 x 13.25 (closed).

It has 23 buttons on 1 side and 28 buttons on the other.

It plays a different note on the push and pull.

I think my wifes father bought it in the early 1900's.

I would appreciate any information you can give me about it.

 

Dave D.

steeldrafter@springnet1.com

[David Barnert]

Did it come from the midwest? Sounds like a chemnitzer. See if anything here looks familiar:

 

http://www.newulmtel.net/~lorens/

 

http://www.concertinamusic.com

[wes williams]

Quote from the site below:

Around 1900, Otto Schlicht came to America from Germany, bringing with him a vast knowledge of concertina repair and servicing. He began building Chemnitzer concertinas in 1917. Soon Schlicht was supplying concertinas to Patek's Music Store in Chicago, under the name Patek; the Vitak-Elsnic Music Company, as Pearl Queen, and Kosatkas House of Music in Berwyn, Illinois, with the name "Peerless."

 

http://www.polamjournal.com/polka/chemnitz.html

[Dave D]

For David Barnert:

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked both sites & found they had very similar instruments but nothing quite like mine.

I am attaching a picture if you would like to see it.

I also found that my wife's dad left a large box of old sheet music for the concertina. There must be 200 or so different songs. Is there any use for this old music ?

Do you know of any place where I could have my concertina appraised ?

[David Barnert]

There is not much chemnitzer expertise at this site. It really is a different beast than the instruments most of us play here, although the chemnitzer folks also call their instrument a concertina. I'd expect you'd find more edifying answers to your questions by contacting someone at one of the sites I mentioned above.

 

I hope the above doesn't sound too exclusionary. I'm happy to read posts and learn about all sorts of squeezeboxes. But realistically, the box you have there is not the center of the discussions here.