identify

[Seán Ó Fearghail]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-Musical-Instrument-CONCERTINA-Accordion-19C-/220713049417?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336385dd49#ht_2964wt_1141

 

bit unusual.... what do ye think? maker?

[Daniel Hersh]

http://cgi.ebay.com/...#ht_2964wt_1141

 

bit unusual.... what do ye think? maker?

 

Maybe a Jones? But I'm not at all sure. The air lever is interesting, though perhaps it was added by an owner.

[OLDNICKILBY]

The round head screws suggest German, whilst the Air lever suggests Simpson or Harley and the fretwork German.

Thus as these two makers were re-badging German tinas as "English Made" lets go for German

[Stephen Chambers]

George Jones.

[hielandman]

That is very interesting for an English made concertina! I have a 19th century German made concertina(Imperial I think, with a Swan for a logo) with the same type of air button/lever. I emailed the seller yesterday to ask him if he could take the ends off so as we could see the internals, but he declined to do so saying that he was non-musical and might lose or break something(the last time a seller declined to open a concertina for me, I found out that he couldn't open it due to frozen bolts!) All that being said, it appears the lever arms are metal, such as typically found on english made ones, whilst they are wooden on my German one. Stephen, did Jones use that air lever often? I am going to ask the seller if I can go visit him to open it up myself, I don't live that far from him. Do you think that is asking too much?

[Stephen Chambers]

Stephen, did Jones use that air lever often?

 

He used it on all his early instruments (as you will see in the photo I've provided a link to), and he may have used it occasionally later to special order - perhaps if it was what a customer was used to.

 

It wouldn't be any problem to do it to one of his instruments as he used a German-style "trapdoor" arrangement for the wind key.

[nkgibbs]

Dear All,

 

Here are pictures of the nether regions of this concertina;

 

 

I agree with Stephen C. that this is probably a Jones with rivetted pivot posts and the trapdoor air control.

The gaps in the bellows frame in the last photo suggests that originally there were end bolt plates and that the wood screws were a later addition. If you imagine the ends with bolts rather than screws the concertina seems very similar to that pictured half-way down this post

There are no numbers in the concertina just L and R stamps on the action boards.

On one end there is a novelty whistle (shown on photo 3) and on the other a bird call.

 

Wishing everyone on C.net a Very Happy 2011,

 

Neil

Edited December 31, 2010 by nkgibbs