Dating A Lachenal From The Serial Number

[David Aumann]

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.

[Tiposx]

Hi Dowright

I wonder if you could help me by dating another one of mine - a Lachenal ec tutor model?

It is numbered 

43365

Many Thanks

Tiposx

[Dowright]

Tiposx,

No 43365    Circa 1905

[Tiposx]

Thanks again Dowright!

[Andy Morris]

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 ?

[Andy Morris]

Here are some photos 

[Dowright]

Andy,

No 103779   Circa 1888

[Andy Morris]

Thank you Dowright, that is incredibly kind of you, it’s in a sorry state but I’m resolute that it will be brought back to its former glory! Thank you again ?

[David Aumann]

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

 

[tealeaf]

I'd be very interested to have an estimated date for my Lachenal. Rosewood ended 30-button anglo with steel reeds. Serial on reed pan is 147438.

[Dowright]

David,

No 70510   Circa 1882

 

Tealeaf,

No 147438    Circa 1896

[tealeaf]

6 hours ago, Dowright said:

David,

No 70510   Circa 1882

 

Tealeaf,

No 147438    Circa 1896

 

Thank you!

[David Aumann]

21 hours ago, Dowright said:

David,

No 70510   Circa 1882

 

Tealeaf,

No 147438    Circa 1896

 Thank you so much, Dowright.

[d.elliott]

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 

[Stephen Chambers]

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".

[d.elliott]

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.

[Sprunghub]

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.

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.

[David Aumann]

Stephen, the construction of the one good end is typical Lachenal anglo construction. Undo the bolts and the end splits in half, revealing the action. Take the whole end off and you get to the radial reed pan.