There is a concertina advertised on UK eBay from a UK vendor described as a 'Civil War period concertina'. It is, indeed, an 1860s instrument and of the American Civil War period.

I did briefly wonder whether it was a previously unknown early instrument used by Cromwell's New Model Concertina Army or perhaps someone with a Cavalier playing style!

Yeah, I've also been surprised on more than one occasion by various English sellers listing instruments as "Civil War vintage", without explaining whose Civil War. Maybe they were recent "squashboxes" from some African country?

But was it not Cromwell who said

It wasn't? Oh.

Chris

Surely the Roundheads would have preferred edeophones, seeing as they're closest to being circular...

I thought the whole thing (the English Civil War) was about the Cavaliers playing Englishes, and the Roundheads anglos ?

Sure, wasn't it Cromwell who introduced the anglo into Ireland !

(Or maybe not ...)

Then again, I see that there is now a German-style concertina on eBay (item # 37086669), described as "an older copy of the ones used in the 16th and 17th centuries by shipboard sailors and pub musicians. It has some water damage in the bellows area" (well it would, wouldn't it ?)

Maybe that really was a "concertina end" after all, that they found on wreck of the Mary Rose ? (Sank 1545)

That number didn't work for me, but here's the link that did.

I wonder if by "older", the seller meant "later". Looks pretty 20th-century to me. Shall we have a contest for the best idea as to how it suffered water damage?

Sorry !

There were a couple of digits not showing, in the window, when I typed that, it should be item # 3708666911.


What's the prize ?