Stephen Chambers

Butler's was a large, and long-lived business, they even had a branch here in Dublin, and all of their concertinas that I have seen were inexpensive Lachenal models. The serial number of this concertina would seem to suggest a date around the time that the labels changed from Louis Lachenal to Lachenal & Co., which was probably about 1873.

Scholer concertinas were made at Klingenthal, in Saxony, when it was the German Democratic Republic. They were the continuation of a tradition of concertina making, in Klingenthal, since 1853, and were little different to the German concertinas of that time. After German reunification, the elderly couple who manufactured Scholer sold the business to one of the accordion factories in the town, who still make traditional German concertinas.

You remind me of a man I visited in Manchester more than 30 years ago, who had a beautiful Edeophone with reeds in "Old Philharmonic" pitch (about half a semitone sharp) made by Lachenal's top tuner Mr. Green. Rather than have it retuned, and risk spoiling those magnificent reeds, he later had another set of pans made, with low pitch reeds, and these came from Lachenal's in a fitted mahogany box. For what it's worth, I would be very worried about people changing over reedpans whenever they want to change key. The reeds and valves are easily damaged even in a workshop situation, never mind on a pub table, and there are serious risks of introducing dust, fluff & hair into the instrument, causing notes to stop sounding. There is also a serious risk of warping the reedpans that have been removed, if they are not stored properly. My own opinion is that you are much better off with a complete instrument in any given key or pitch.

Keith, You will probably find that "Regoletta" is an importer's brand name. Many manufacturers will put whatever name you want onto instruments, as long as you buy enough of them. The business that started life as "Bastari", became "Stagi" and then "Brunner", still makes concertinas under all those names, plus "Gremlin", "Hohner", "Saltarelle", "Boorinwood" etc., etc., etc. for different markets.

It may seem surprising to us today, but shops often sold seemingly completely unrelated things in years gone by. I have come across several instances of tobacconists selling concertinas in the nineteenth century, both in England and Australia, and at least one of the German makers had links with the tobacco trade.

Yes, but don't most boxers use a Bullworker instead ?

I'm quite sure it was a different one, I wasn't meaning to suggest it was the same. I would say, though, that you would want to have the arm muscles of a boxer to play either of them, heavyweights indeed !

It sounds a bit like a (duet-sized) Wheatstone Aeola anglo that Paul Davies had about ten years ago. A wonderful machine, but hard work to play. The story was that It had been made in the 1920's for a boxer (it wasn't yourself was it Jim ? ). Cheers !

The most likely cause is either a loose pillar, as Robin has described, or that the pad has somehow got thinner, either by losing its leather facing, or by moths eating the felt. If it is one of the latter you will need a new pad, though that may necessitate slight bending of the lever if you want to achieve an even button height.

Now that's more like the colour of the ones I have had, and other examples I have seen.

Amboynawood is much lighter than it appears to be in the photograph, which is (like the rest of the photos on the website) very dark, and brown bellows would normally only be used wtth amboyna. On the other hand, all the tortoiseshell aeolas that I have seen (and I have owned two of them) have had black bellows. I have heard doubts expressed about whether they used real tortoiseshell, or if it is something like celluloid, indeed they would have had great difficulty finding a large enough plate of tortoiseshell for the 72-key duet I once had (Wheatstone Director K.V. Chidley had made it for his wife). Gold-plated fittings would be "standard" with such deluxe finishes. Edited for clarification.

eBay are definitely getting faster dealing with these, I reported this to them at 21.18 last night, and they replied at 06.14 this morning saying "appropiate action" had been taken. I see that it is now an "Invalid Item".

It looks like "xinutal" (aka "Ianis Spatidis") is still up to his tricks. There is yet another scam auction on eBay (Item 3732243363), with text & photo obviously taken from Juergen Suttner's website. I have informed eBay. Cheers,

Thanks for the very interesting natural history lesson Ivan. In that case, I wonder if these ladybirds were there to eat the moth larvae, because I have only ever seen them in concertinas with moth-eaten pads ?

Yes, I was home the other week & saw all these flags, they look remarkably like a St. George's cross don't you think ? I thought England must be playing in a football tournament or something, so thanks for putting me right ! (The standard of driving must have got very bad, I saw lots of them, in fact most cars had two, & some even had four !)

No, I was meaning their larvae, as in Alan's first post. And on several occasions I have found dead ladybirds, that presumably hadn't been able to find the "EXIT". The mesh, or gauze, inside the fretwork is certainly a good idea, to keep the "critters" (of whatever persuasion) out in the first place.

I have received the same photo as Henk, along with the following description from "Ianis Spatidis": Now I wonder whose website he got that from ? Edited to correct typo.

Jim, Next time you make something up like that, you had better Google it first , just to make sure somebody didn't get there before you ! (11,500 results): "A Chinese Auction is an event at which you bid for items with small tickets that have a predetermined dollar value. ... " Or fingers in dykes ?

Don't hold your breath ! I asked him for the same information 10 hours ago, but I have had no reply.

This auction is already the subject of the thread "Jeffries Concertina". I too have sent the seller an email, more than 8 hours ago, and have received no reply.

Alan, I have often heard tell of the "dreaded concertina moth", but the actual culprits, whenever I have apprehended them (so far), have always been ladybirds ! (And I thought they were such sweet creatures, when I was a child !)

And what are we to make of this one? There are no photos, it doesn't even say what system it is, or what key, or keys (depending on system), it is in, though the seller seems to have some knowledge of concertinas, and concertina dealers. Also the seller is a "newbie", it's a three-day auction, there is a low opening bid and no reserve. It wouldn't inspire me with confidence to bid ! Maybe somebody in London could ask about taking a look at it ?

I see that eBay have closed this auction, a search for the Item number now comes up as an "Invalid Item" (which we all knew it was to begin with !) The acknowledgement I got from eBay stated that: "We will look into the item(s) you have reported to us as quickly as possible. eBay's Community Watch team reviews all user reports of items, normally within 24 -36 hours." I clicked on "Safeharbour (Rules/Safety)" at the foot of the listing page, then "Prohibited & Restricted Items", & then "Community Watch" which led me to "Contact Us", where I chose the most appropriate heading "I didn't bid, but think a listing is fraudulent". However, the reply I got said "Please note that future reports must be submitted through our Webform located at: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/contact_inline/index.html". (Which takes you to exactly the same place !) Wouldn't it be much simpler if they just had a "Report" tab on each listing, like we do on posts to this Forum ?

Chris, "Freshford Waits" ? Cheers,

Did you ever go for a curry with Paul Davies ? He always used to call waiters in Indian restaurants "George".Nope. Sorry I didn't. Probably just as well, the two of you would have sat there all night calling everybody George !