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If Wheatstone had invented the concertina equipped with a fully-fledged (46+ button) Hayden layout, I doubt that the mass-produced English, Crane or Maccann systems would ever have happened (what would be the point?). The need to produce a cheap instrument with a decent compass would have ensured the introduction of the 20-button Anglo of course, and its many variants would have naturally followed giving rise to an Anglo situation similar to the one we have today.

She is - and George, being a REAL man, always parted his hair on the left and buttoned his jacket to the right, so the photo's been printed the wrong way round, too.

My ebony-ended 55b+air Wheatstone Aeola #23855 (6.75" across the flats & weighing 50oz) has, on the LH side, the D#3, A#3, B3 & D#4 all shifted to the left, but the A#4 is shifted an equal amount to the RIGHT (possibly to match the fretwork pattern). On the RH side, A#4, B4, D#5, A#5, and A#6 are all shifted to the left. I also have a nickel-ends-with-gold-buttons 55b+air Edeophone #2814 (7.5" across the flats and weighing 62oz) which has its D#5 shifted a little to the left.

Assume the original buyer wanted a 4-octave (C3 - C7) instrument in C, but needed it to be kept small and he also wanted the D#'s, A#'s and B's to be offset to the left, so Wheatstone's told him, "We can do that for you, sir, but we can't give you the D#6, and we can only go down to E4 on the right-hand side." And that might be what we've got.

Now I've had another look at it, I reckon it only goes down to middle G on the RH side (like a 55b normally does). That's not what you're after, is it?

Sure is: I have a 55-button 8-sider from the same era, with those same offset buttons. Mine is small & light (50oz) and its home key is C.

But an important aspect of this instrument that didn't sell is that although it's only 55 buttons, it does go down to middle C, though the "standard" 55-button Maccanns from Lachenal do not. So in practical terms, this appears to be a "57", just missing the highest F# and G in the right hand. (As it happens, this is exactly the range of a standard 55-button Crane duet.) I'm surprised it didn't sell. Did potential buyers only look at the number of buttons and ignore Chris' statement about the range? He didn't help himself by failing to quote values for the weight and the size across the flats, as these are its selling points. The lightest 'normal' 57-button instrument that I've weighed was 62oz (a flat-ended Wheatstone 6-sider, and I think it was less than 7" across the flats), so it would have to be noticeably better than this to interest me.

I saw (but didn't play) this Edeophone when I visited Carol's Barnsley house to buy another of her concertinas (which was exactly as described) and can confirm that it looks a real treat. She is an honest seller.