Jeffries Cranes - ?

[Marien]

Hello all. i am not a regular user of the forum but with all the comments about Jeffries Cranes i thought i would try and show a picture of the one i play. It is a 61 button ( including the air button) . I have just changed my profile image to show the jeffries Crane.

 

It really looks like a huge Crabb...

[JimLucas]

If I remember well, your crane has black polished wooden ends and a slight bow pattern of the buttons in one, whereas the Jeffries Cranes with metal ends that shop up in this discussion look like Crabb made with the V pattern of the rows. Custom made I suppose, the question is who made it? The sound of yours is different (compared to reeds of my big Crabb which are sounding great by the way) - it maybe related to the wooden ends or would it suggest another maker of the reeds.

 

Marien, if it's one of my duets you're remembering, it must be either my Maccann or my Pitt-Taylor, both of which are Wheatstones with raised ebony ends. My Jeffries Crane has metal ends (beautifully re-plated by Colin D.), and only the framing and hand bars are wooden ("ebony"). The button arrangement is the chevron pattern, which seems typical of both Crabbs and Jeffries. And the ends are "flat", not with a raised area for the buttons like the one in vision2020's avatar.

 

I'll try to put up some photos shortly.

[Marien]

Jim,

 

No I really meant your Jeffries Crane I played in Sweden.

So I read - raised metal ends - and the button arrangement

Strange that it's not what I had in mind. Am I getting old?

Memories seem to change over time...

 

Maybe I closed my eyes while playing it.

 

But one thing still is a fact - it played like heaven,

I hope it still does...

it's the most important thing to remember...

 

Marien

[JimLucas]

No I really meant your Jeffries Crane I played in Sweden.

So I read - raised metal ends - and the button arrangement

Strange that it's not what I had in mind. Am I getting old?

Memories seem to change over time...

 

Maybe I closed my eyes while playing it.

Could be. What I was thinking is that you might have remembered the look of one of my others while remembering the feel of the Jeffries Crane. Here are photos of the ends of each.

 

First the Jeffries Crane:

 

 

 

Then the Maccann:

..

 

 

And the Pitt-Taylor:

..

 

Considering the "gloves" of the Pitt-Taylor, though, I doubt that's the "look" you remember.

 

But one thing still is a fact - it played like heaven,

I hope it still does...

I don't, but it does.

[Geoffrey Crabb]

Ceemonster,

Probably because I am a little biased, I prefer to say it the other way round, ‘Jeffries do sound like some Crabb Crane instruments’.

 

Malcolm,

Good to see a Crabb Crane in action. Thanks.

Enjoyed Over the Rainbow.

 

Jim,

Since it seems that Crabb ceased supplying Jeffries with ready built instruments around 1895 and the Butterworth/Crane system was conceived in 1896 it is unlikely that completed Crane instruments were made for him. Of course, for a further five years or so, Anglo parts (or even kits) were supplied for him to assemble and as the earliest Crabb Crane that I am aware of is 1897 why not the odd Crane bag of bits also.

 

Geoffrey

[ceemonster]

[[[Ceemonster,

Probably because I am a little biased, I prefer to say it the other way round, ‘Jeffries do sound like some Crabb Crane instruments’. ]]]

 

Well, I was waxing rhapsodic about both, let's say....

[shelly0312]

.....whew! Jim. that is about as pretty a herd of concertinas as I've seen---not that my exposure is very extensive. ....And you have ECs besides?? yikes! is that mob as impressive?