Delicia (Czech) Anglo Concertina?

[MatthewVanitas]

I've seen these on eBay a few times, debated on buying one on eBay that ended up going for $147.50 on Mar 10, 2014. I'm aware of Delicia melodeons, which seem reasonably common, but does anyone have familiarity with their concertinas?

 

The endwork seems different from the Italians, and appears to be either cast plastic, or a plasticized coating over wood. Are these basically the same as the post-WWII hybrid Italians or Germans, or did the Czechoslovakians come up with a different competing design?

 

[JimLucas]

I've seen these on eBay a few times, debated on buying one on eBay that ended up going for $147.50 on Mar 10, 2014. I'm aware of Delicia melodeons, which seem reasonably common, but does anyone have familiarity with their concertinas?

I remember seeing Czech-made "anglos"^* back in the '70s in shops in New York City. Didn't seem particularly distinguishable from the German and Italian made ones, but I didn't pay them a great deal of attention, since my interest was focused on English system concetinas of English construction. E.g., I don't remember names of makers.

 

^* Back then we called them "German", to distinguish them from true "anglos" of English construction.

The endwork seems different from the Italians, and appears to be either cast plastic, or a plasticized coating over wood. Are these basically the same as the post-WWII hybrid Italians or Germans, or did the Czechoslovakians come up with a different competing design?

 

I think the plastic-coated ends were more common back then. I have a 20-button Corelli (which needs a new bellows) with square, plastic-coated (white trimmed in black) ends.

Edited March 29, 2014 by JimLucas

[Stephen Chambers]

I can't say I've ever seen one of these before, but for many years makers in Czechoslovakia (across the German border from Saxony - where most of the German ones were made) used to make concertinas and melodeons that are often mistaken for German ones.