Having tried out the duet and decided that niether of us have enough time or flexibilty of mind to master a second concertina system I'm putting this up for sale and am offering it here first. I attach a photo of one end and have more to illustrate the internals etc.

Marked with " The Edeophone Duet, Lachenal & Co. London WC" and serial number "4520".

The handstraps are the original gold tooled ones with the legend "Lachenal and Co. Patent No 4752, London."

Nine fold bellows (nine peaks that is, I've always found that a confusing description).

Reed pans and ends marked with serial number and an inked stamp for "H.J.M Clarke, 3, Ball-Haye Street, Leek, North Staffs" on each reed pan. Chris Algar says that he has come across a few instruments marked by this dealer and they were generally good instruments.

There is also an internal pencilled note about a repair dated 26/6/1995.

Very clean internally and in tune at concert pitch. Lowest note is G, the same as the lowest on a standard G/D Anglo.

It has a red lined cube box that I imagine is less that 20 years old.

If I have to subsequently list it on ebay it will be starting at about ₤1700.

If interested please contact me for more photos, they are about 3.8Mb each, so I'm up against the limit for posting here, but give a fair resolution.

Robin Madge

That sounds like it must be an early stamp of the concertina player/dealer Monro Clarke of Leek, himself a Maccann duet player. You'd sometimes see his more usual octagonal stamp "MONRO CLARKE for concertinas" in good quality instruments from around Leek and Stoke-on-Trent - so no doubt Chris Algar has come across it...

Hi! are you still selling this concertina? I you are I would be interested in it. How much would you ask for it?
I will be able to purchase it before the end of july, or beginning of august.
Thanks!
Gilbert.

The beast has now been sold and hopefully will soon be making beautiful music for someone who can cope with the MacCann system:)

Robin Madge

So did it go to France then?

No, until we start sending concertinas into space it went about as far as it is possible to:)

Robin Madge