wes williams

I can't see it either, but its given me a new way to use attachments. Click on my controls, and look at the recently viewed list. If you click on this, it opens a window containing the attachment. In the case of Stuart's attachment, it opens an empty window, so the software thinks its there.

or even simpler: http://www.concertina.org/pica If you spot any msitakes, let us know!

But maybe we are being too blinkered by only thinking about English makes? I've just got Volume 3 of "Amateur Work Illustrated", a reprint c.1893, but the original would have been mid/late 1880s. It has an article "Concertina and Melodeon Tuning and Repairing" by Henry Dryerre which is about 'German' types and says: Each maker seems at liberty to adopt any note he may consider best for the scale of his instruments, consequently, from a dozen concertinas,taken at random, eight or nine different scales may be found: D, E flat, E, F,G, A flat, and A, being in pretty frequent use. Its also interesting that nowhere in the article does it mention anything other than 20 key instruments. Edit to add: View the article here

Can I just emphasise what Theo says here. NEVER click on any of these links in emails. Its even possible for a scammer to make it look like you've gone to a particular site in Internet Explorer - say www.ebay.com - which will appear in your browser address bar, when you are actually somewhere else!

Paul or Ken, I'd like to rebuild these wayback pages into a single object for the ICA archive, and I think I might have a fairly easy way to do it. I'm not intending to put it on the ICA site, just into the archive (like I did for the old Horniman site). Any objections? best wishes ..wes

We've had about 150 Lachenal duets reported in the past few years (~2.5% sample) - ~100 were Maccann, and ~50 were Crane, so Jim's guess is pretty good. Probably 21730, the Crane Patent number.

Sorry Roy, it wasn't a confrontation - just trying to dig deeper into your thoughts. This instrument is interesting as we've seen another similar looking Jeffries just recently, dated as 1893. If you compare with this picture you'll see the difference in fret width. Geoff Crabb said earlier how his ancestors preferred to stamp reeds for C/G no matter what key, and its said that Jeffries started making his own completely around 1890/95, so perhaps this thicker fret and your reeds true G/D stamping could point to instruments bearing characteristics of some of the first 'whole' Jeffries made instruments?

Sorry Greg, but I don't have any info on this brand name. But 'Czegesa' doesn't sound very German, and I wonder if perhaps it was made with a market in another country, or an emmigrant group, in mind?

Thanks for the pictures, Roy! Looking at the second one, its noticeable that the fret on this instrument is a bit thicker than many we know of, which seems to suggest that its more 1890s than 1870s/80s, and the rough condition may be giving the impression that its older. How did you decide on its age? best wishes ..wes

The next issue of the article I think you've been using will only add that Simpson purchased many instruments from Wheatstone in the early days, as Stephen says above. I've had a very quick glance at some of the ledgers from that period, and although he was buying in Spring 1848, he seems to have stopped by January 1851 ( there is a gap in ledgers between these two dates). As the fret pattern on this instrument doesn't seem to be one used by Wheatstone (although Stephen may correct me) it may be possible to narrow the date down to 1850 - 1869. The early ledgers should be available online sometime soon at The Horniman Website. Simpson is well known in the flute world, and you may be able to find more information about him by searching on that theme. A good starting point is Terry McGee flutes.

As Stephen said, John G Murdoch were London dealers. They seem to have started in the mid 1880s, as I can't find anything for them before 1888. They were at 91 & 93 Farringdon Rd until 1914, but by 1921 were at Hatton Garden. About 1934 they became Murdoch Trading Co. moving to Clerkenwell Rd, sole selling agents for the Beltona professional Accordeon and the National Accordeon.

I'm afraid that other than the sleeve and the 'New Edeophone' I have no further info, Robin. But the two items together give us a very good view of just how active this Scots group must have been. I've also just dug around my hard disk and found this photo.

Nobody here has remarked on the three new items in the cnet museum - including a record sleeve with a photo of a large group of English players in Glasgow. The name on the sleeve rings a bell - was Ross the name we saw on that 'New Edeophone' that popped up a while back? The 1930's date would match with the late number it had, near to Lachenal's closure.

Well, I did that, and it worked, but... After using that procedure to delete about 150 Mb of files at once, every time I clicked on any file or directory in Windows Explorer, it took many seconds (sometimes half a minute or more) to return control to me. I finally shut down the machine and restarted, and then it was quick, again. This is a problem in Win98 and one I suffer from too! In Win98SE help its under keyboard shortcuts - desktop, but don't ask me why!

Pat should also be credited with having a lot to do with the foundation of the ICA Archive. Although he wasn't active at the time it started, it was his collection of Newsletters that he'd donated to the ICA that got the whole project on its feet.

Would the 1946 version of the Jones tutor be useful? Its here.

I don't think it is speculation that this instrument passed through the hands of C Jeffries Junior! Other instruments have been reported where CJ Jnr made similar stampings. The stamping between the buttons is typical of an Jeffries of the 1870/1890s. Later Jeffries/Jeffries Bros had the name in an oval, with the 23 Praed Street address. The fretwork is also of a finer cut than the later ones. So even if CJ Jnr did use 'old stock', its very unlikely (I'd say impossible) that this instrument was made in the 1920s in that way.

Hi Paul, Jeffries Bros seem to have come into existance a bit before 1910, and as said earlier, CJ Kilburn stamps seem to date to the early/mid 1920s. The reversed 'N' seems to be quite common, and its been reported a few times in threads here.

An alternative free pitch/tempo changer can be made using winamp, which is a media player that has lots of plug-ins for different sound effects. Its been around for many years.

I think this shield probably never got as far as the ICA. Its not listed as a prize in any of the ICA Festival reports (although I don't have them all). The 1969 Festival prizes for 5 or more players were cups presented by ICA notables, and in 1977 there was: The "WHEATSTONE" CUP presented by C. Wheatstone and Co. Ltd., for the highest aggregate of marks, in any three classes, by one performer, excluding Class 12. (edit to add: which would have been Steve Dickinson by 1977)

Jim, Try looking in help for keyboard shortcuts - and which Windows version are you using?

Picture of Uhlig, with some of his instruments, here

Just press SHIFT+DELETE for permanent deletion. The response will be slightly different for each Windows version, but its usually a 'Do you really want to delete..' type dialogue.

Hermann - the ICA are trying to get a sound archive set up, and also a database of concertina related recordings. But these things are only just starting. The 'paper' archive was only started about four years ago, but the 'Printed Music' archive has been going for almost the whole 50 years of the ICA - and that is representative of the music played. Its only recently that people have started to realise that things like this are useful, but setting them up takes a lot of dedicated work.

Neil, I can't answer your question, but its worth noting that 'Sirolo' is a small town in the Italian accordion making region, near Numana. Whether this refers to the source of the instrument, or the origin of the USA manufacturer, I can't say. Its worth quoting this article from Accordion Review, December 1950 written by Prof. G. Pizzuto to give some idea of how extensive the industry was, and how it had spread. THE HOME OF THE ACCORDION Although many people are inclined to think that the accordion originated in Austria, it first saw light many years before in some other country but, nevertheless, we are still somewhat in the dark as to its real source even though Stradella and Castelfirdardo made the first real Accordions. so, really, Italy can be said to be the home of the Accordion. For more than a hundred years artist-craftsmen have worked to achieve the perfection of the modern Accordion. Those first young pioneers came from the ranks of Carpenters, blacksmiths and even farmers; in fact, from all trades and walks of life. from them came the Accordion traditions which have been handed down from Father to Son. These sons in turn, devoted their lives to the instrument, emigrating to different parts of Italy and, later, across the World, especially to the New World - to America. Even today, certain names in the Italian Accordion manufacturing world have been handed down to the third generation such as Dallape, Anelli, Soprani, Scandalli, Massoni, Maga and many others. Some of these factories are run by two or three brothers including those belonging to Frontallini, Crosio, Galanti, Scandalli, Borsini, Busilachio, Bocci, etc. To supply the World demand for instruments, new factories have sprung up next to the original ones so that today hundreds of thousands of experienced workers are employed - and this does not include all those small home-workshops where every member of the family helps to make certain small parts. There are factories in Stradella, Castelfirdardo, Nuumana, Camerano, Osimo, Ancona, Mondaino, Pessaro, Recanai, Macerata, Potenza, Piceno, Fano, Valla Lomellina, Giaveno, Vercelli, Cremona, Parma, Mondovi, and many other places. Let us visit some of these centres and see whose factories are to be found. First, to Castelfirdardo (Ancona) where we see Paolo Soprani, Settimo Soprani, Scandalli, Sante Crucianelli, Borsini, Ballone Burini, Ubaldo Bontempi, Francesco Serenelli, Saverio Soprani, Enfonica, Marino Pigini, Primo Carbonari, Marino Guerrini, Invicta, Pasquale Ficosecco, Umberto Magi, Victoria, Giuseppe Moreschi, Accoroni, elettra L'Artigiana etc. In Stradella (Pavia) we find Mariano Dallape, Fratelli Crosio, co-Operative Armonica, Felice Bianchi, Renato Massoni, Guido Tizzoni, Salas, Ereole Maga, La Stradellina, FIAS, Luchini Giustini, Voce D'Or, Paolo Rogledi, L'Aurora, M.Losio etc. At Numana (Ancona) there are Nazzareno, Frontallini, Maggi, daily di Monaco, Petrolinni, La diamante, etc. In Osimo (Ancona) are Busilachio, Aborfeo, Cagnoni, La Voce di Castelfirdardo, Antonelli, Nota D'Or, Ottavianelli, CIFD, Pesaresi, Italfisa, etc. In Pesaro co-Operativa, La Nuova Stella, G. Fontanella, Mancini, Sirena, etc In Mondolfo (Pesaro) are Aldo Silverstrini, Paolo Sora, Corinaldes, etc. In Recanti (Macerata) we see Virgilio Soprani, Cingolani, Guidobaldi, Castelfisa, Chiusaroli, Marinucci, Silvio Soprani, Beccaresci, etc. In Macerata are Cesare Pancotti, Fratelli Gentili, La ritmica, etc. In Ancona La dorica, FISAR, Harmony, Mazzieri, SAIPA, etc. In Valle Lomellina is Clemente Serra. In Giaveno (Torino) is Eugenio Guglielmetti At Vercelli are Co-Operativa Armonica, Gugliemo Ranco, Bartona And Locatelli, etc. In Mondaino (Forli) is Galanti In Parma, Bocchi In Fano, Remolo Galassi In Cremona, S.A.Anelli In Torino, Antonio Lajolo In Malva, Renato Pacini. Also worthy of mention are the makers of Accordion and Harmonica reeds and others who are responsible for various accesories. These include Egiziano Carloni, Fratelli Forlani, and Voxnova, of Stradella; SAVAC, Fratelli Breccia, Nazzareno Pietrella and Attilio Mandolini of Castelfirdardo. Yes, Italy can truly be said to be the Home of the Accordion!!!