Message In A Concertina

[SteveS]

I recently acquired a Rock Chidley single action baritone concertina - it has a number of messages inside it.

 

What messages have you seen written inside concertinas?

Edited June 18, 2014 by SteveS

[Mike Franch]

No comment on the incriptions, but the reeds I can see look beautiful.

[Geoff Wooff]

I've seen various messages in concertinas... often just the owner's name ( and address sometimes) or a repairer's mark and date..... but the most famous one which has been metioned a couple of times was :

 

" this concertina made and played by Rock Chidley 22nd February 1848"...... if I remember correctly.

 

This is scratched into the underside of the fretted ends , between the buttons, of the Ivory ended Wheatstone number 1775... which is now in the Horniman Museum. One would need a Lupe to read it though.

 

A more recent aquisition of a very wonderfull Maccann Aeola had an owner's name and 2 addresses in it and I tried to find some information about the man because this was a special instrument, not the normal range and it had the most beautifull tone I have ever heard.... but alas... I could find no 'concertina' related information.

 

Yes Mike, nice reeds indeed.... in fact some of the most beautifull internal work I have ever seen was in Rock Chidley instruments.

 

Interesting topic Steve.

[mike byrne]

The left hand concertina (picture 1) is my 5 1/2 inch Lachenal Anglo with a normal size 30 key.

 

When it was opened for restoration, I discovered writing on the reedpan (picture 2), which reads:

 

 

THIS INSTRUMENT

PLAYED TROOPS

INTO BATTLE

AT ARMENTIERS

AND CAME OUT

GOOD

 

Inside the bellows frame (picture 3), it reads:

 

A. LEWIS

LIVERPOOL

with various battles also listed:

 

LA SIENE - ANCRE - YESER - MARNE - ASINE

The spelling is dubious, but this is what was written.

A fellow Cnetter has studied the war records and says it might be Pvt A.Lewis 8977 of the 1st Battalion, Kings Regiment (Liverpool), who was a regular soldier form 1914.

Edited June 28, 2014 by mike byrne

[Chris Ghent]

What a terrific inscription, hard to imagine a better one..!

[Stephen Chambers]

THIS INSTRUMENT

PLAYED TROOPS

INTO BATTLE

AT ARMENTIERS

AND CAME OUT

GOOD

 

Inside the bellows frame (picture 3), it reads:

 

A. LEWIS

LIVERPOOL

with various battles also listed:

 

LA SIENE - ANCRE - YESER - MARNE - ASINE

The spelling is dubious, but this is what was written.

A fellow Cnetter has studied the war records and says it might be Pvt A.Lewis 8977 of the 1st Battalion, Kings Regiment (Liverpool), who was a regular soldier form 1914.

 

The battles of Armentières, Aisne and the Marne were all in the opening stages of the War, and before the opposing armies became totally dug-in and the stalemate of trench warfare started in earnest, so the original owner of the concertina must have been an "Old Contemptible" (Regular Army, British Expeditionary Force, in 1914).

 

And having just read the Aug.-Dec. 1914 1st Battalion, Kings Liverpool Regiment War Diary (The National Archives' reference WO 95/1359/1) I can confirm that they fought at the Battles of the Marne, Aisne and Armentières, whilst Yeser is almost certainly Essars, where they were billeted on 26th-27th December.

 

Private Albert E. Lewis (008977) became a corporal.

[Stephen Chambers]

It seems that those fierce 1914 battles written inside his concertina, which stopped the German advance in its tracks, also brought an end to Corporal Albert E. Lewis' military career - he had joined up on 28th Sptember 1904 and was dicharged on 12th January 1915 (exactly 5 months after he entered the War, on 12th August 1914) because of wounds...