unknown, slightly broken, old concertina

[Stefan Egli]

Hello everybody
A friend of mine has the concertina pictured in the appendix in his possession. Unfortunately he has no other information on age, origin, manufacturer, tuning etc.
The Concertina has one or two broken buttons and has not been opened yet.

Does anyone have an idea of which manufacturer it could be, who could repair this instrument and what value this Concertina could have?

Thank you for your help.

[Geoff Wooff]

That is a Wheatstone  by the look of it.

 

Where to get it repaired    depends which  country  you live in.

 

In reasonable  playing and cosmetic  condition  these  can  be worth  £1500 -  £2000   .  The fretwork is a little  crude   and it is impossible to    tell what needs  repair.

 

If you can  find a number  stamped  on the woodwork  inside  (  5 digit  serial  number)  then it is  easy  to   find out how old the instrument is .

 

Good luck with it.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Geoff Wooff

[Stefan Egli]

The concertina is located in Switzerland. Not necessarily a country where many people play concertina :-)

[Geoff Wooff]

Then I  would suggest  finding a concertina restorer  in   England.... there are quite a few.

[Stephen Selby]

I see a trigger-style breather button next to the l/h thumb strap. Did Wheatstone do those?

[Takayuki YAGI]

I think some model of Lachenal and Wheatstone have such slots for air levers (bowing valve?).  But I am not sure they only have slots or they have actual levers.

For example (from buttonbox.com),

Lachenal: https://www.buttonbox.com/images/ceu0558-02b.jpg

Wheatstone: https://www.buttonbox.com/images/ceu0557-02b.jpg

[Geoff Wooff]

4 hours ago, Stephen Selby said:

I see a trigger-style breather button next to the l/h thumb strap. Did Wheatstone do those?

Yes,  you  will find these  on Wheatstone  concertinas.  

 

In the  Wheatstone Ledgers    the  'air'  buttons  (  where they are present on an instrument)  are  noted  by the  designation   SV  ( for  slide valve)  or  KV  ( for  key valve).    The change over  from    Slide valve  to  Key valve  happened  in the early 1920's . The   breather , button or lever,  is  only on the right   but  if they  are  on both sides then they  will  be  'bowing valves'  and  only work in one direction each.

 

I  have  two  similar  models  of Wheatstone , one with and one without  the  Slide   air  lever  on the right.  Although  we might utilise  this  as  an  'air'  lever  these days  I  feel it  might have  been  meant to  be a double action  Bowing valve  as none of these  work  very well as a quick  way of opening or closing  the bellows.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Geoff Wooff

[Leonard]

2 hours ago, Geoff Wooff said:

.......The   breather , button or lever,  is  only on the right.......

 

 ......two  similar  models  of Wheatstone , one with and one without  the  Slide   air  lever  on the right. .......

The pictures, both from the OP and from Takayuki, shows the slot for an air lever on the left hand side.?

[Geoff Wooff]

5 hours ago, Leonard said:

The pictures, both from the OP and from Takayuki, shows the slot for an air lever on the left hand side.?

Yes they  have the slots  on both sides  but  rarely  levers  on  both sides  and  often slots  but  no levers  at all.  I have seen  levers on both sides  of a Wheatstone  but it is rare.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Geoff Wooff

[Leonard]

Thanks.

After a better look indeed I see lever slots on both sides on the OP's pictures.

[Stefan Egli]

Hi
My friend has now opened the concertina and took the following pictures. The Concertina shows the number 22690.
Can someone tell me how old the Concertina is and what brand it is?
My friend is considering a sale, what value does the concertina have in this conditon? (not restored)
Thank you for your imputs.

[david robertson]

Well, it looks like a Wheatstone serial number, although it falls into the pre-1910 gap in the ledgers. 

However, I don't think I've ever seen a Wheatstone with a handwritten number on the back of the action box. 

As Geoff has already pointed out, the fretwork is also a bit crude... certainly not up to the quality you would expect to find on a raised-end Wheatstone. Could the ends have been replaced at some time by a less skilled hand? But then again, why would anyone replace metal ends? Personally, I would be very wary of the Wheatstone attribution.

[Theo]

What is the measurement across the ends between the flats?    I have a suspicion that it is smaller than the typical 6 1/4".

[Stefan Egli]

Excuse the late reply. In the picture you can see the size of the concertina

[Geoff Wooff]

Yes  , indeed  slightly smaller  than  normal,  'normal'  being  15.9cm.   or   6.25 inches.   

 

The  number  22690  suggests  a Wheatstone  made  in 1898-1900... I  cannot think  who  else  could have made this instrument  but it is interesting  to  me  because   I  have  Wheatstsone   number 22695.... which , incidentally  is  of the standard size.  Rivetted action  can be   clearly seen  in  third  photo  of the original post.

 

It  appears  that  the    very  late 1800's    was an era of  experimentation at  Wheatstones, with the introduction of their  first  metal ended  models  where several   distinct styles  of  fretwork  can be found.  Chris Algar   at  Barleycorn Concertinas  ( www.concertina.co.uk)   currently  shows  another  48 treble  from the same  period  with  fretwork  less open than the  example  in question here  but more open than my own. There is, at least,  one other  very different style of metal  end  fretwork  from  the  pre 1900  period.

 

I could be interested  to purchase  this  concertina  Stefan .