Jump to content

LACHENAL


Recommended Posts

Hi, I have a LACHENAL serial no 4752 which has 21 buttons on one side and 25 on the other side plus the air button, it has 9 folds in the bellows and is approxamately 19 inches long. I believe it was made for the stage in VAUDERVILLE as there are a lot of special effects in it for example bird sounds, whistles,trains etc.This i presume is the reason for it being so long it also plays as a concertina, the special effects appear to be in the outside rows.So i was wondering if anyone out there could tell me the age of it and the value, many thanks,Regards Ken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be happy to assist you in estimating the year of manufacture for your Lachanal Maccann duet concertina, but will need the serial number.

 

The number that you have provided is the number of the patent granted to John Hill Maccann--Patent No. 4752, Improvements in Concertinas, 12 March 1884.

 

You should find the serial number (1 to 4 digits; lower than 5000) stamped inside the ends. I say "you should find", because it appears that a few Lachenal duets may not have had stamped serial numbers. A Lachenal without a serial number is very uncommon, but a few duets may have been among the exceptions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be happy to assist you in estimating the year of manufacture for your Lachanal Maccann duet concertina, but will need the serial number.

 

The number that you have provided is the number of the patent granted to John Hill Maccann--Patent No. 4752, Improvements in Concertinas, 12 March 1884.

 

You should find the serial number (1 to 4 digits; lower than 5000) stamped inside the ends. I say "you should find", because it appears that a few Lachenal duets may not have had stamped serial numbers. A Lachenal without a serial number is very uncommon, but a few duets may have been among the exceptions.

Hi Dowright,took off both ends no luck, but on one end in pencil there was writing which looked like an address which is very hard to make out as it has been stained over.What i can very roughly make out but might not be 100% correct is, 1,WATER 2,LISTER 3,PROFF,4, 5925,5,NERNL,6,BLVD,7,CHICAGO,8,6QLL,9,USA.I dont know if this is any help,but your friend suggested some pictures which i will get my son to do,many thanks in the meantime.Regards Ken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To get a sensible answer, Ken, it would be best if you could upload pictures.

Hi Paul, many thanks for your reply ,I will have to get my son to do the pictures for you. Regards Ken.

 

(Photo 3)

post-9318-0-26998600-1304932054_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a bizarre thing. The ends look like normal 'bottom end' Lachenal 46 key duet ones. The bellows look uneven, and I wonder if the long sides and the extra folds were all added to a 'normal' concertina after it was made, perhaps at the request of 'the turn' to make it look more impressive. You'd think it would try to fold itself in half all the time and be difficult to play, wouldn't you? Got to be one for the collectors, surely?

 

Come on then Dowright. What did you find inside it? Are the extended ends just cosmetic? Did the reedpans have slots for the accidentals that had been blocked up when they installed the novelties, or were they in there from new?

 

Do tell!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a bizarre thing. The ends look like normal 'bottom end' Lachenal 46 key duet ones. The bellows look uneven, and I wonder if the long sides and the extra folds were all added to a 'normal' concertina after it was made, perhaps at the request of 'the turn' to make it look more impressive. You'd think it would try to fold itself in half all the time and be difficult to play, wouldn't you? Got to be one for the collectors, surely?

 

Come on then Dowright. What did you find inside it? Are the extended ends just cosmetic? Did the reedpans have slots for the accidentals that had been blocked up when they installed the novelties, or were they in there from new?

 

Do tell!

 

Dowright says: "I have never seen inside, but I sure like the idea of seeing inside." Conceivably, the novelty buttons were a retro-fit. Could the original serial number have been lost with the original reed pan, if it was replaced in the retro-fit? But if so, shouldn't the serial number be in other end--the one without the novelty buttons?

I have had about a half-dozen owners of Lachenal duets swear--almost under oath--that there were no serial numbers on their reed pans, action boxs, bellows frames, or anywhere else. The inability to provide a serial number seems to be more prevalent for duets than Lachenal Anglos or Englishes. It's a mystery to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wasn't so interested in the number. We know it's a Lachenal; going to be 1890ish on to whenever they went broke; 1930s? and a lot of the bits look pretty ordinary. It was what it actually had in it that I was intrigued by.

 

So the novelties are all in one end you say? So the other end is a complete fraud then, a normal end fitted to a long empty box. (unless...It didn't have double reeds or something like that, did it?) When I talked about modifying an existing instrument I was thinking modifying the existing pans; it never occurred to me that someone might have made what would now seem to be just one of them (going to be just one because if the other is still 'standard' they wouldn't need to change that) completely from scratch; that would be much more expensive unless it was made like that in the factory from new. I was thinking that you might see blocked off slots for reeds with the novelties built onto them, so you could see that it had been altered. It didn't leap out at you, though.

 

Ken; do you know any more history? The vaudeville idea seems a pretty good bet to me, certainly, but do you know who or where?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a bizarre thing. The ends look like normal 'bottom end' Lachenal 46 key duet ones. The bellows look uneven, and I wonder if the long sides and the extra folds were all added to a 'normal' concertina after it was made, perhaps at the request of 'the turn' to make it look more impressive...................

 

Special effecsts may be more important for a clown than the full orchestra range of a many many buttons maccann.

 

About the odd size - the special sound effects may need the space inside for mechanism creating noise such as fart cushens, spinning wheels inside, Tibetian nose whistles, or even a water pistol?

 

I would be surprised if it has been changed afterwards. If somebody wanted a strange duck like this professionally, he may have ordered this special duck at Lachenal new in stead of paying twice? Couldn´t this be tailor made by Lachenal for a clown?

 

Just wondering...

 

cheers,

Marien

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ken; do you know any more history? The vaudeville idea seems a pretty good bet to me, certainly, but do you know who or where?

From the ICA Newsletter in 1969:

WALTER LINTON (The Concertina Expert). Does anyone know anything about him? His name was mentioned in 'The World's Fair' amongst a list of old time entertainers.

 

Clue? Any chance it could have been a son of Charles Linton (1865-1947) inventor of the 'Lintophone' system, who toured as a band 'The Lintons' c.1915-1925 with wife and two sons?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Couldn´t this be tailor made by Lachenal for a clown?

 

It could have been made for a clown, but it is very doubtful. By and large, clowns have favored miniature concertinas, not oversized ones. An exception was the Brothers Webb, who used a huge concertina, as well as miniatures and regular-sized ones--made by George Jones. however, their huge concertina, which had a standard 20-key Anglo mechanism in the center, was as much a prop as an instrumeent. (It ended up in the hands of Tommy Williams who sadly trashed the big frame to salvage the 20-key guts.)

Novelty sound-effect buttons--cock crow, baby cry, etc.--were used by regular music hall concertinists, as well as clowns and others. Both sound imitations and miniature concertinas were used by some music hall performers to provide diversionary interludes in their acts. Of course, such "horse play" did not apply to the real serious minded ones such as Alexander Prince (supposedly the most serious guy around).

For example, comedian-concertinist Dutch Daly (see article in the PICA archives at concertina.org) performed and recorded various sound effects--some sound effects (violin tuning, bugle, church chimes) using the regular keys, but other sound effects using just the novelty buttons.

Regarding sound imitations, two of my favorites on the Anglo concertina are:

(1) taxi horns in a traffic jam in New York or London (choose your city)

(2) tugboat foghorns on the East River in New York or the Thames (choose your city)

 

(1) two taxi horns: Simultaneously PRESS the A and G# (Ab) keys in the top row, left side (index and middle finger positions), then, for the second horn, simultaneously PRESS the C# and A keys in the top row (left side, middle and ring finger positions). Alternate back and forth between the two horns, and you have impatient cabbies in a trafic jam.

(2) two tugboat horns: Simultaneously PRESS the low E and low A keys in the top row, left side (shifted position for little and ring finger)--a tonic-and-fifth broken A major chord--then, for the second horn, simultaneously PRESS the C and G keys in the middle row, left side (shifted position for little and ring finger)--a tonic-and-fifth broken C major chord.

 

Are there any members out there who would wish to share their own favorite imitations?

Edited by Dowright
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ken; do you know any more history? The vaudeville idea seems a pretty good bet to me, certainly, but do you know who or where?

From the ICA Newsletter in 1969:

WALTER LINTON (The Concertina Expert). Does anyone know anything about him? His name was mentioned in 'The World's Fair' amongst a list of old time entertainers.

 

Clue? Any chance it could have been a son of Charles Linton (1865-1947) inventor of the 'Lintophone' system, who toured as a band 'The Lintons' c.1915-1925 with wife and two sons?

 

Of course, it could have been a son, but it may be a little more doubtful given that Charles Linton was his stage name; he was christened Charles Gay. But maybe Walter was his son and choose to use only the family stage name. I think Wes is probably familiar with a short article on Charles Linton and the key layout for the Linton Duet System ("Lintophone"), which appeared in The Concertina Newsletter, Issue No. 11 (April 1973). The author of that piece, a family member, used the name "F. Linton-Gay." I wonder if Linton was the maiden name of Charles Linton's wife. It seem conceivable. After all, Tommy Elliott (born Tommy Varley) took the stage name Elliott, the maiden name of wife Hazel.

Edited by Dowright
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Regarding the Linton family, see also an article in the Australian Concertina Magazine #13 written by somebody about my height. Unfortunately, I don't have the relevent magazine to hand just now, but from memory, Linton was Charles Gay's mother's maiden name.

I have only ever encountered 2 Linton system concertinas, both of which had the same number of buttons in each row, unlike the instrument in question. And I don't recall any American connection from my research, so I believe the suggestion of a connection between Linton and this concertina is a bit tenuous.

But I could be wrong....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...