Lachenal Minis

[LeadFingersErnie]

Does anybody know how many baby/mini 20-key concertinas Lachenal made? And when?

[Geoff Wooff]

Does anybody know how many baby/mini 20-key concertinas Lachenal made? And when?

Perhaps you could clarify what you mean Ernie ?

 

If it were 20 key Anglos then the answer is 'countless' numbers....

[JimLucas]

 

Does anybody know how many baby/mini 20-key concertinas Lachenal made? And when?

Perhaps you could clarify what you mean Ernie ?

 

If it were 20 key Anglos then the answer is 'countless' numbers....

 

 

I suspect he means the "Miniature Newly-improved" concertinas advertised in this price list, also listed in some other strictly Lachenal price lists (e.g., this one) without mention of actual dimensions.

 

Another answer to his question, though, is that we have no way of knowing, as there are no known surviving records and Lachenal didn't have separate serial number runs for different models of anglo.

 

Note, though, that those lists indicate not just 20-key "miniatures", but up to 30 keys. Also note that these were somewhat smaller than normal but still much larger than the novelty "miniatures" of various systems with ends of 3½" or less.

 

Ernie, why did you ask? Have you come across one?

[richard]

Hi

 

Here is my 26 button Lachenal "mini". It is 5.25" across the flats. The brochure you linked to, Jim,lists a 26 button smaller instrument as 5.5" accross the flats. I believe this one is from around 1900.

 

It is very light and It really plays easily and is quick. The tone is sweet but I would say not quite as subtle as other concertinas I have played. It is a neat little box.

Edited September 14, 2013 by richard

[Dowright]

Lachenal did not produce many small-bodied concertinas. My database for Anglo Lachenals (currently, 2594 entries) has only 16 small-bodied Anglos: six 20-key Anglos, one 22-key Anglo, two 26-key Anglos, and seven 30-key Anglos. In addition, there is one true miniature Anglo--3 3/4 inches across the metal ends, 22 keys, in D/A.

The database includes one small-bodied English system--a 48 key piccolo. All of these concertinas except the 3 3/4" miniature have wood ends.

On small-bodied concertinas, see Randall C. Merris, "Miniature and Semi-Miniature Concertinas," Papers of the International Concertina Association, 9 (2012), pp. 8-39.

Edited September 16, 2013 by Dowright

[John Sylte]

For the record, there are two true Lachenal miniature anglos 3 3/4 inches across. The first:

 

And the second:

 

Both are now in marvelous condition, restored and highly playable, in key of D/A, with brand new 9 and 10 fold bellows, and owned by me. 

Edited January 12, 2024 by John Sylte
clarify

[nkgibbs]

This is really a question for the keepers of the Lachenal database - Randall or Wes.

In 2013, there were 16 semi-miniature Anglos on the database, how many are there now?
Many thanks, 

Neil

Edited February 15 by nkgibbs

[wes williams]

Only 6 are listed as 'semi-miniature', but 16 are listed as being smaller than 6 inches. We now have 3691 anglos listed (as opposed to 2594 in 2013), so none have been added in the past 8 years.  I've not updated recently, so there may be more to add. Randy has 'retired' from this task, so the database is now with me, but I'll make sure that its whereabouts and software are known to the folks at The Concertina Journal , who already have the data from before I took over.

Edited February 16 by wes williams
anglo reports increase added.

[nkgibbs]

Dear Wes,

Many thanks for this interesting information; if a concertina is smaller than 6 inches across the flats, does this not make it a 'semi-miniature' ?

Best regards,

Neil

[wes williams]

Neil -

Sorry to seem pedantic, but has it ever been defined what a 'semi-miniature' is? I just searched through the database and found only 6 using that term, so I searched for 5, which gave me hundreds of '5-fold' entries to go through. And what about the term 'miniature'? Should we apply that to anything less than 5 inches? I've just found an entry 'Anglo 20-key Piccolo; 4 3/4" ends', so perhaps that increases the number I found earlier by 1, and there are also another 5 'piccolo' entries (usually 30 keys) without any dimensions reported, but with only one descibed as 'small body'. I don't really want to go through the whole data base of 7029 instruments updating it for these terms. Randy gave a few definitions for these terms in PICA 2012 page 8 onwards that don't seem to match your definition of the terms.

best wishes .. wes

[nkgibbs]

Dear Wes,

Many thanks for your further insights into the mini/semi-mini/piccolo question.

In Randy's article there is an excerpt from a Lachenal advert showing that they produced a (semi-) miniature 26b that was 5 1/2" .

 

 

If I understand the article correctly, is Randy suggesting:

STANDARD -  6" to 6 1/2"

SEMI-MINIATURE - 5" to 5 1/2"

PICCOLO - less than 5" (playing an octave higher than STANDARD)

MINIATURE - less than 4"

 

Best regards,

Neil