wes williams

Without numbers and a bit of a description we can't estimate 😟 but the address puts it 1873 - 1933

I remember reading something about action end warping many years ago, and the solution was said to be putting a layer of damp sawdust on the end, and leave it until the warp righted itself. Anybody like to comment?

I've recently come across an archive of John Knight and others recordings on soundcloud. Especially of interest to anglo players here will be Paddy Murphy (recorded 1972) and Packie Russell (recorded 1973). But for English system players there are also quite a few recordings of John's son Andrew. Its a huge archive with many Irish Trad musicians and singers that John recorded in the 1970s for you to dig into, as well as UK folk names. It's got many sad memories for me as I spent years playing with John's eldest son Simon (a brilliant button accordion player, far right in the photo) in 'The Velvet Bottom Band' for dances all over the Mendips, and picked up many Irish tunes from him. Although I only played guitar in the band, Simon knew I also played concertina for Morris and Stave, and gave me a copy of the Packie Russell tape. The photo shows John's four sons.

Thanks Stephen, I tried searching the forums, but the only thing I could find was from Mark Davies in this thread , so you've filled in what I couldn't find, including that the 'mother of toilet seat' New Edeo and perhaps the sleeve above was on the old (now deleted) 'Concertina Museum' pages here.

Unusual pearloid ended Lachenals have been mentioned here in the distant past, and have been linked to A. M. Ross of Glasgow. Here are a couple of images of a 78rpm record sleeve with interesting photos and details. He is probably Andrew M. Ross born c.1880 in Glasgow, son of Alexander M Ross (b. 1854, Glasgow) and Isabella K G Ross (b. 1855 Paisley)

Bill & All ... Lots of folks don't seem to realise that there are extra sections, with lots of different images in each section. And if you hover your mouse over the images, they will scroll to show you them all. Clicking on an image will show it full size. For some reasons this never got put in anywhere!

If they are related to the Oldham Astleys, Stephen Chambers may be able to provide more information as he has researched the earlier generation here .

From the 1950s up to today, the fastest growing genre for the concertina was in 'folk' music. But before that there were few 'folk' offerings, and you will find many recordings 1900-1950 on my website here and many modern 'non-folk' recordings here .

Long time contributors have already covered these instruments in 2004.

So no problem then ??

Doug - 158423 is circa 1898. It was on the database as 30 key, so I've updated.

An English system 36489 would be circa 1898. That number on an Anglo would be circa 1876, so you can see why we need to know the type

Steve - we need to know what type as both English and Anglo systems use this number, and each system has different dates. The number of buttons might give us a clue if you don't know what system it is.

Circa 1892. It was probably tuned to 'Old Philharmonic Pitch', see the list of pitches on page 2 of this Lachenal price list.

Daniel, It may save Gary a bit of work, but from the auction picture, the Lachenal price list seems to be the same as this one

We'd estimate anglo 87898 to be circa 1886.

By 'similar vintage' I wasn't claiming it was c.1930, but somewhere near that, perhaps 1910-1920. The last known directory entry we have for 23 Praed is 1921, and there is a handwritten receipt using that address from mid 1922, so that gives a rough indication of the latest date for the price list. An early 1914 receipt is for a 60K duet at 12 guineas, and the price list gives this model as 18 guineas (50% more) which suggests that the price list may be post war.

I'll go with everything Stephen has said above! Our estimate of the date of the Edeo #4784 is circa 1930, and as I've written recently the change of telephone exchange for Lachenal to Holborn happened between July 1928 and November 1929. And now we have a Jeffries price list of similar vintage! Many thanks for bringing this to our attention David.

Almost 20 years later, our current database of 2696 reports of Lachenal English has seven in the 5000 range, with the lowest confirmed number of 5063. So we would estimate your instrument to be circa 1859.

Mike - 836 would be circa 1890.

1317 would date to circa 1894. My 46k metal end Maccann (689) also doesn't have an air button - and so do most duets.

If you 'sound' two reeds together, you hear a 'beat' when their pitches don't quite match.

I heard just before Christmas that Neil Wayne (of Free Reed Records) has health problems and someone was helping him to try find a home/homes for his collection of instruments in the Concertina Museum

Geoff - 20+ years ago I got a couple of very light hardshell cases fitting both my standard size instruments from one of the chain stores. They were described as ladies make-up cases, and came in quite a few sizes. Worth looking out for as a possible alternative?

If the number is 164433 its already on our database as a 20 Key anglo and would date circa 1899. 64433 is circa 1881. C & S may refer to Crane & Sons, a large dealer based in Liverpool, but with many branches.