Crabb Anglo

[Rod]

Extract from todays edition of 'Blackmmore Vale Magazine' (which is centred on the Dorset/Somerset area) :-

 

'A rare Crabb octagonal Anglo 59-button Duet Concertina is expected to fetch around £1,500 when it goes under the hammer of auctioneer Simon Pearce at SEMLEY AUCTIONEERS in September. In exceptional condition, it comes complete with a fitted case and a Salvation Army song book' The announcement is accompanied by a very enticing colour photographic illustration. I guess this will be of considerable interest to some of us ?

[Rod]

Additional info. Semley Auctioneers, Station Road, Semley, Shaftesbury, Dorset. (see their website)

[Geoffrey Crabb]

'A rare Crabb octagonal Anglo 59-button Duet Concertina'

 

An Anglo Duet???

 

 

 

Geoff

[malcolmbebb]

'A rare Crabb octagonal Anglo 59-button Duet Concertina'

 

An Anglo Duet???

 

 

 

Geoff

 

 

They did say it's rare...

[saguaro_squeezer]

I looked at the auctoneer's site but didn't find any information. Would anyone care to share a link?

[wes williams]

There is a piccy in the Blackmore - its a five row English type of Duet Anglo (alias a Butterworth). I'll scan it tomorrow.

[saguaro_squeezer]

There is a piccy in the Blackmore - its a five row English type of Duet Anglo (alias a Butterworth). I'll scan it tomorrow.

 

Thanks Wes. Geoff told me that Crabb had actually made a few Butterworth Duet Anglos instead of the Wheststone chevron layout ones This should be quite a rarity!

[JimLucas]

There is a piccy in the Blackmore - its a five row English type of Duet Anglo (alias a Butterworth). I'll scan it tomorrow.

Isn't the Butterworth system more often known as the Crane or Triumph? So to inform those less familiar with the different duets, this one would not be Maccann-system, which is the system usually meant when saying just "duet".

 

Geoff told me that Crabb had actually made a few Butterworth Duet Anglos instead of the Wheststone chevron layout ones This should be quite a rarity!

Regarding arc vs. chevron contour to the rows of buttons, was it actually Wheatstone's that originated the chevron layout? I think Lachenal-made Cranes/Triumphs normally have the arc contour, but my Jeffries-made Crane has the chevron contour. (No surprise, if Crabb also normally used the chevron contour.)

[Geoffrey Crabb]

Clarification,

 

The chevron is a Crabb inovation first used by John Crabb soon after registration of the Butterworth Patent (1896) and certainly by 1900 on a known 59 Button 'Crane'. The spacing and relative positions of buttons were based on those of the English to allow a more comfortable transition.

 

Plans show that on some Crabb Crane duets, the lowest octave on the left was made with the 'push' reeds pitched an octave lower than the 'pull reeds. This increased the range with little increase in size.

 

 

Wheatstone did not start producing 'Crane' models until some ten or so years later.

 

 

Geoff

[saguaro_squeezer]

There is a piccy in the Blackmore - its a five row English type of Duet Anglo (alias a Butterworth). I'll scan it tomorrow.

 

Thanks Wes. Geoff told me that Crabb had actually made a few Butterworth Duet Anglos instead of the Wheststone chevron layout ones This should be quite a rarity!

 

Sorry, this was a poor attempt at continuing the humorous aspect of Wes' post. Practically no histroical fact was intended.

[inventor]

I have obtained the following imformation from Semley Auctioneers (tel 01747 855122)

Auction Date 17 September at 10.30, viewing on the previous 3 days.

Crabb Serial Number 10021.

 

The picture in the Blackmoor Vale Magazine clearly shows the right hand side of a Crane System Duet with 31 buttons on it. 6 chevrons plus one extra button at the bottom. My guess is that would be the usual middle C to an F 2.5 octaves above, plus a bonus B below the middle C. This would leave 28 on the Left hand side. My guess is that this is the usual tenor C to the c an octave above middle C, plus a bonus 3 notes below the tenor C. Without a picture of the left hand side I cannot say if this might be A, Bb, B; or G, A, B. perhaps the serial number might give more imformation ?

 

It is obviously a very high quality instrument, together with the Salvation Army book and the wider compass of notes, suggests that it was made specially for a Salvation Army virtuoso musician. I think that the Auction Estimate of £1,500 vastly underestimates the true value of this instrument.

 

Inventor.

[JimLucas]

The picture in the Blackmoor Vale Magazine clearly shows the right hand side of a Crane System Duet with 31 buttons on it. 6 chevrons plus one extra button at the bottom. My guess is that would be the usual middle C to an F 2.5 octaves above, plus a bonus B below the middle C. This would leave 28 on the Left hand side. My guess is that this is the usual tenor C to the c an octave above middle C, plus a bonus 3 notes below the tenor C. Without a picture of the left hand side I cannot say if this might be A, Bb, B; or G, A, B. perhaps the serial number might give more imformation ?

My own Jeffries-label Crane, though with the chevron button configuration, also has 59 buttons... plus an air button.

• The right hand is as Brian describes, essentially the same as the right-hand layout of a standard 55-button Crane with an added B below middle C, located just where it should be expected in the regular pattern of the Crane layout.
  
• The left hand on mine is similarly like the left hand of a 55-button Crane, but with three additional buttons/notes, one being a thumb button and the other two forming a partial "6th column" outboard of the regular array on the side away from the thumb. With none of those three being at a location which would be an extension of the standard Crane layout, the notes they play could be chosen arbitrarily... and perhaps they were.
  
• On mine, those three extra notes are Bb, A (thumb), and F below the usual low C. But I once had the opportunity to handle another Jeffries-label Crane with the same button layout, where thos three "extra" notes were B, A, and G. (By the way, that one had raised ends, while mine has flat ends. Different vintages, or just personal preference? I don't know.) And I have been told of yet other Cranes with the same button layout, but I don't know what they had as their additional notes.
  

So it seems that this particular 59-button layout may once have been a sort of "standard variation" (a bit like having a low F in the G# location on a 48-button English?). Maybe Geoff could tell us how rare or common they were, at least among the instruments made by Crabb?

[JimLucas]

There is a piccy in the Blackmore - its a five row English type of Duet Anglo (alias a Butterworth). I'll scan it tomorrow.

Thanks Wes. Geoff told me that Crabb had actually made a few Butterworth Duet Anglos instead of the Wheststone chevron layout ones This should be quite a rarity!

Sorry, this was a poor attempt at continuing the humorous aspect of Wes' post. Practically no histroical fact was intended.

No, no, don't apologize!

 

Considering the worth of butter these days, your contribution was most valuable.

 

Probably I should apologize for not catching on (though in view of my own "sense of humor", I'm sure some of our readers are glad I didn't).

[wes williams]

Although Inventor has described it very well, here's the piccy.

[JimLucas]

Although Inventor has described it very well, here's the piccy.

Okay, now that we've confused everyone else (or at least those who have been paying attention), I should point out that the button rows in the photo show what I know as the "chevron" profile, which I would guess was standard for Crabb and Jeffries. The rows of the Lachenal-made Cranes/Triumphs that I've seen (including those produced with the Crane & Sons Ltd. label) aren't peaked, but form a gentle arc, which I think (correct me if I'm wrong) was the original Butterworth design.

 

P.S. It does look like a very nice instrument.

Edited August 19, 2011 by JimLucas

[Geoffrey Crabb]

Jim and Others,

 

10021 Made September 1946. Records actually show - Octagonal, 62 Key Crane, Metal Tops. Hopefully any viewer or buyer of the concertina will inform me if the button count is truly 59 so that I may correct the record.

 

Of the 32 known variations in button number and left and right ranges of Crabb built Crane/Triumph duets I attach two layouts (A & B for the 59 button. These will show the standard extra notes for Crabb instruments although other options may exist.

 

 

 

 

 

The following may be found useful as a guide regarding spacing/position. Note. Crabb instruments were made with the Butterworth arrangement when requested.

 

 

 

Geoff