wes williams

Hi Ian, Butler's were active 1826-1927, and at 29 Haymarket from around 1865. I think they became G Butler & Sons around 1898. Quite a few Lachenal made concertinas with a Butler label appear in our database.

We would estimate Edeophone English 57529 as circa 1920.

Hi Greg, Our estimate on 59798 is circa 1926. It seems Lachenal production had fallen throughout the 1920s, so thats how we came up with that date.

Steve - Go to http://www.concertina.com/crane-duet/index.htm for the Butterworth patent, and the Crane tutor of the same year.

David Giovannoni has recently created a new website https://i78s.org/ which contains over 46,000 early recordings 1890s-1930s, mainly from USA sources. Its free, but you will have to set up an account to access the recordings. Searching for 'concertina' gives you eleven cylinder recordings, nine from Alexander Prince (Maccann duet), and two from Isak Piroshnikoff (English). I think you will be surprised by the quality of these cylinder recordings compared to the more common 78rpm records. David was responsible for discovering, and transfering to audio for the first time, the earliest known recordings from the 1850s made in Paris by Leon Scott de Martinville on lampblack-sheets.

Thanks for the heads up Steve, That date is around 10 years later than our current estimate of circa 1859 for this instrument. Current research suggests that Lachenal started numbering his own make English concertinas starting at 5000 in 1858. The 1869 date is much nearer 1873 when Louis Lachenal became Lachenal & Co, and we have lots of evidence of the label changing around the serial number 18000 for English concertinas. So the inscription points to an acquisition date rather than a manufacturing date.

Stephen, Please allow a little thread creep - the MDRA 1862 price list shows "People's Concertina" with "riveted notes". I have often wondered if any of these have survived, and could they have been intended for a new line of manufacture for Wheatstone by Lachenal?

Thanks Mike, That shows that our estimates are fairly near in this region. The instrument could have been purchased from a dealer in the local area, and might have been sold to the owner a bit later than our estimate. But the details will be added to our database and taken into consideration next time we update our estimates.

Mike - Circa 1897

Hi Gabrielle, We'd estimate 38860 as circa 1900.

Circa 1873.

Circa 1931

Hi Wally, A bit of history - serial 4679 puts this instrument into the 'Duet' serial number range. This isn't unusual as we have two more New Model anglos (4674, 4681) very near this, and we'd estimate them to circa 1929, just before Lachenal folded.

Mike - circa 1881. Another new one for the database, so can you tell me metal or bone buttons, etc please.

Agree entirely, Stephen. My comment was just to show a brief dating summary, without any details. We don't have enough data or documentary evidence to pin down the exact date change in numbering system. Was it related to the patent expiry (1910), or was it related to the adoption of the Crane by the Salvation Army as the Triumph system (1912)? Maybe we'll find out one day!