jdms

I have a 40-button Wheatstone C/G from 1954.

I know an American Alastair, but he doesn't play concertina...I suppose I could be misremembering the accent, but I'd think an Englishman (or a Scot) in a small town in Virginia would have stood out more in my memory. I haven't yet tried David's suggestion of contacting the school, but it's worth a try if I can figure out a good starting point. In any case, thanks for all the responses.

Turn my back for a week and look what happens...I had no idea that John Roberts and Tony Barrand, with or without Nowell Sing We Clear, had ever performed in Berryville. I'm certain that the man who performed for us spoke with an American accent, in which case he couldn't have been John (also, the Deep Purple/Darth Vader bit seems out of character for him). The Bluemont Concert Series hadn't occurred to me, but I do remember (for example) Madeleine MacNeil playing hammered dulcimer for us in elementary school in Boyce I think under their auspices, and there's no reason they couldn't have sent a concertina player along. I might manage to follow up on some of those names--pictures of Howard Bass from the period fit pretty well with what I remember of the man's appearance and he was teaching in Winchester at the time as well as being involved with Bluemont, but does he play concertina? I haven't found any mention of it so far. At any rate, thanks for the suggestions and so on. Jim, was it a roller rink that Bluemont used for practice? I don't remember an ice rink (and a roller rink seems more practical for the purpose anyway), but I was never interested in skating, so it might have escaped my notice.

Some time between the fall of 1981 and the spring of 1983 a man came to Johnson-Williams Intermediate School in Berryville, Virginia, to demonstrate the concertina for the assembled student body. It's possible he played a duet, but I expect it was an Anglo. My memory is vague, but I believe he was young and bearded--at somewhere between the ages of 12 and 14, my perception may have been a trifle skewed. All I really remember of his presentation is this: "The concertina is a great instrument. You can play rock music on it." (plays keyboard riff from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water") "You can even be....Darth Vader." (holds down the air button and produces an appropriate heavy breathing sound with a few draws and presses) I don't remember his name or where he came from, but have thought for a while that he might have come out from DC. It also occurred to me that Bluemont Morris was extant at the time and quite a lot closer, so if they had a concertina player, he might have been the one. At any rate, it was he who planted the seed of interest in the concertina in my impressionable little mind and I'm curious as to who he might have been. Does any of this ring any bells?

Maybe he was taking the long route for a little extra sightseeing?

Easily solved: don't wear boots.

I expect you've have mentioned it if it were there, but just in case: do the words "Trade Mark" and an outline of a reed appear on the handrests?

Another bump with a lowered price.

Giving this a bump--still available, will entertain offers.

I've now edited my photo posts to link to Dropbox rather than Google Photos, which I'm hoping has solved the problem. In case it doesn't, here's a Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zc1ovo56rlz5pid/AAALZAGI-hzbWOggWORvYtC0a?dl=0

Apparently linking directly from images in Google Photos doesn't work if you're not the account holder. How about that. There's probably a way to make it work so everyone can see the pictures in the post, but for the time being at least I've added links to click to see them.

Oh, and the Horniman ledger page (to save people a step or two):

Hm. I thought I put the pictures in properly and I can see them--anyone else having problems?

The case:

Reedpan and action, left: