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Dating A Lachenal From The Serial Number


johnconstable

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Hi to all, I recently purchased an old Lachenal 20 button Anglo for the princely sum of £12 plus postage, I am seriously considering getting it restored and have been in contact with Dave Elliott at concertina repair about this. I am wondering if anyone would be able to give me an idea of when it was made? The serial number is 103779 and is labeled Lachenal and co? 
thank you ?

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Hello Dowright, can you please date a Lachenal a 28-key anglo serial number 70510. It's the one shown a couple of posts further up the page, with all buttons on one end? I think Lachenal only began anglo production about 1862, so I'd hazard a guess at 1870-1880, but I'm curious. Thanks, David

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Downright,

 

I have a very early Louis Lachenal come in for restoration, I have never seen a Lachenal with this form of action-box casing design, and other than some terribly butchered thumb-straps, and a bit of dirt it is original inside, pads, crinkly valves, the lot. High quality brass reeds, rose wood ends original springs and serviceable, but tappy pads. The Serial is 8459. 

 

Would you advise what your database would indicate as an approximate date please? I am guessing around 1864, around the start of the American Civil War, which rather puts the instrument into a historical perspective.

 

Many thanks

 

Dave 

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22 hours ago, d.elliott said:

... I have never seen a Lachenal with this form of action-box casing design ... 

 

Is it that the fretwork and sides are all in one unit Dave, and that they lift off the pad board complete like they do on a typical German concertina? I've seen that on early examples of the 2 guinea "People's concertina".

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That's right Stephen,  I have seen it used on some of the modern repro-concertinas, and on some of the East German stuff but not on a Lachenal. I guess there was a lot of prototyping going off in Louis camp at the time, he would be going through a productionisation process. What is interesting is that there is no gasket built in between the pad board and the the casing, but the wood working is so precisely produced.

 

Dave.

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On 6/14/2020 at 5:18 PM, David Aumann said:

Can I get help dating this weird Lachenal that I have posted here twice before (1999 and 2014). It's a 28-key instrument with all buttons on one end and nothing on the other. Serial number is 70510. Thanks so much.

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I think these are really interesting - there was a one-side Crane on the market a while ago.  I think the suggestion is that they were made for servicemen ( and presumably others ) who had lost an arm in conflict or accident.

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