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Age Of My Anglo?


samper

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Hi - I've recently obtained an old Lachenal Anglo and was wondering how to tell its age? Its serial number is 79559 and has very intricately made rosewood (?)ends. Didn't there used to be a formula that one could use to work this out - I've looked but can't find one.

Edited by samper
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Thanks - yes that's the formula I was thinking of however it seems a little bit out I think as my anglo has the reed trademark on the handle and I believe that Lachenal didn't start using that trademark until about 1878?

Samp

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Thanks, very useful. Funny how I couldn't find it? Anyways having done the maths looks like it's age is somewhere in the1890s, which given the amount of muck dust an crud inside the bellows suggests to me that's true!

Samp

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Thanks, very useful. Funny how I couldn't find it?

This is one of the "turned-off" old static pages (formerly linked from the C.net home page) that yours truly volunteered to port over to where we can all see them. I can see it is time to do that!

 

Ken

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This is one of the "turned-off" old static pages (formerly linked from the C.net home page) that yours truly volunteered to port over to where we can all see them. I can see it is time to do that!

Ken

 

Yes please!

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Ah that's really interesting and pushes it back about a decade. Plays nice, with a really great set of steel reeds it's really bright and bouncy. I rebound the bellows and put new valves and pads on it and tuned it up and it's great again..not bad for something made around 1880! :)

Edited by samper
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Samper,

 

My preliminary estimate of the year of manufacture of your Lachenal Anglo No. 79559 is circa 1884.

 

The estimation methods discussed in earlier postings to this thread are highly inaccurate. In applying these methods, the starting and ending years used for the Lachenal company ("Louis Lachenal," later "Lachenal & Co.") are 1850 and 1936, respectively. These dates are wrong; Stephen Chambers indicated in this forum way back in 2004 that (1) the best estimate for when Lachenal started to market Anglo concertinas is 1862 and (2) that the closure of the Lachenal firm probably came in 1933. My subsequent research supports the conclusions about the 1862 and 1933 dates. (Ironically, given that Louis Lachenal died in December 1861, he may never have sold an Anglo concertina.)

The Aumann and Meredith estimates rely on "markers," characterized as "confirmed dates." I do not know why these dates were deemed to be "confirmed", but I do know that the pairing of No. 51480 with 1895 and No. 140375 with 1908 are way far of the mark. No. 51480 was made over a decade and a half before 1895, and No. 140375 was made more than a decade before 1908. (Ironically, pairing No. 140375 with 1895, rather than 1908, would be reasonable.)

Where did their "markers" originate? Many Lachenals have handwritten dates inside, but these are almost invariably dates when the instruments were repaired or retuned. (An original owner seldom rushes home to open their new concertina and inscribe their name and the purchased date.) The handwritten dates inside are useful for indicating when the instruments were known to exist, but not as "markers" for manufacture and original purchase year.

Sales receipts, particularly those from sales by the Lachenal itself, are better candidates as "markers." Even with sales receipts, cared must be exercised, because sales receipts do not always indicate whether it was sale of a new instrument or sale of a second-hand one.

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