Auction lot - Wheatstone & Co specially commissioned concertina with Jeffries fingering and interesting ICA provenance

[Wolf Molkentin]

Wes, I reckon it's in fact Bridgwater...

 

Best wishes - ?

[wes williams]

Somerset people have always been a bit free about their spellings Wolf

[Mark Davies]

A 48 key Anglo Duet by R Carr together with the fingering chart( to follow)

[Mark Davies]

[Geoffrey Crabb]

On 11/29/2019 at 1:17 AM, gcoover said:

I read somewhere that Crabb had made at least one Jeffries Duet - do you have recall as to what size or when that might have been?

 

Gary

Gary, I have found two definite Crabb built Jeffries Duets in the records:

No.9055, 50 button, built 1930.

No.18298, 60 button, built 1969.

I have no other information to hand at the moment on these. When I am more able, I will have a look to see if the plans for these (or any others) still exist. 

Geoff

[Myrtle's cook]

The instrument (original subject of this thread) is listed as 'passed' by the auctioneer, in other words it did not sell.

 

I see a linota in the same sale realised £2,900, which even with commission et al, seems a reasonable price assuming reeds etc were in decent fettle. https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/gardiner-houlgate/catalogue-id-srgard10135/lot-6977a607-d1bf-4bbe-b018-ab0c00fa115d

[Bill Crossland]

The bidding reached £3400 on the Jeffries instrument before being passed

[Alan Day]

I too had the pleasure of meeting Jim and his son Maurice after an ICA meeting in London. Maurice was then getting over Polio ,The duet he is playing in the picture kindly sent by Mark was sold at a Steam Rally in Sussex.The last that was heard of Maurice. His playing is available on the Duet Recordings page here .He never played again after his illness a sad loss to the concertina world. One of the finest players of the instrument I have heard

Al

[Sprunghub]

On 12/16/2019 at 8:58 PM, Bill Crossland said:

The bidding reached £3400 on the Jeffries instrument before being passed

Would that - after buyers premium and VAT on the premium - not have been a reasonable price to attain ?  Particularly as it is ( is it not ?? ) after all a later Wheatstone, albeit with Jeffries 'pattern' Duet fingering, so not a Jeffries per se, with it's added kudos. 

Re the Linota, which looked very tidy, a 'silent' and seized Linota basket-case with mismatched parts (metal and bone buttons at least) sold for nearly £4k after costs at a North Wales auction the other day.  

I attended a local 'country auction' this morning re. a 30k Rosewood Lachenal, basic Lachenal staple mechanism, in entirely 'silent', somewhat rusty and latterly 'desiccated' condition, no one else in the room seemed very interested but 'lively bidding' on the phone and Net took it to £620 after costs before it stalled, which seemed very expensive for a 'project'.  Are expectations exaggerated ? ....and if they are, are the created by on-line/distance/blind bidding on occasion.  

Edited December 18, 2019 by Sprunghub

[Bill Crossland]

The seller would have received around £2400 after the auction took their bite, it would be far better to sell on Cnet!

[Sprunghub]

1 hour ago, Bill Crossland said:

The seller would have received around £2400 after the auction took their bite, it would be far better to sell on Cnet!

Agreed, entirely.....but if you use a selling medium, you presumably do so with a reasonable understanding of the fee's, and to expect more return, it questions what the expected selling price/reserve would have been?  Clearly higher than that achieved.  The buyer would have been spending over £4k, irrespective of what the vendor would accrue after their costs.  It still feels a high price to pay ( if not to receive ! )  especially as it didn't sell.

[Ivor Cameron]

I have recently come across Wheatstone  serial number 32282. 72 keys. It belongs to a friend who's father died recently and the instrument was found amongst his belongings. I have just been given it to check the tuning which appears to be anglo with some buttons non anglo. I will post later when further checked.

[Johnny]

On 11/30/2019 at 9:35 AM, Mark Davies said:

A 48 key Anglo Duet by R Carr together with the fingering chart( to follow)

Hi Mark.  Can I ask what identified this beauty as a R Carr instrument?  I have what appears to be a converted duet with a similar layout to the one you posted.  Mine does not have any markings that I can see and am interested if yours had any markings.  Many thanks in advance, John

[Erik Lebrun]

I have a Wheatstone Dated 12/20/1924 according to serial # . It's in very good condition.  8 sided with metal ends . I'm in N.J and not sure what to do with it . I'm interested in selling out right . If anyone's interested feel free to contact me @(609) 332-3831

[Ken_Coles]

Erik,

 

You can start a new thread with this here in buy and sell - you'll get a lot of interest.

 

Ken

[Simon Rosser]

All very interesting stuff, this Jeffries Duet info. Thanks to one and all for the education but I'll stick to my anglos.

 

On a slight tangent, does anyone recall Chris Beale, an exceptionally talented Jeffries Duettist whom I first met 40 years ago when he was playing for Chingford Morris.  I believe he had two machines; one a 56 and one a 58 key box but my memory is possibly at fault.

 

His ragtime numbers were just brilliant!  I think it highly unlikely that he's still around but does anyone know what became of him?

[gcoover]

Major thread drift, but I reached out to John Watcham who replied:

 

Ah yes, Chris Beale - what a nice guy he is/was. I haven't heard of or from him for many years. (I was going to ask you whether he's he still alive) He did join Chingford Morris for a little while and played a LARGE Jeffries duet. Not quite the thing for lugging around on a Morris pub crawl but indeed a good player particularly of those ragtimes.  (He must have had a brain like a computer in order to get to grips with the Jeffries fingering).

 

I recently acquired a 58-button Jeffries Duet from a shop in Colchester, no special markings, but perhaps it might have belonged to him at one point?

 

Gary

[Simon Rosser]

Hi Gary,

 

It's entirely possible, as I know Chris lived out that way in Essex.  It would certainly have had neck straps - or at least the clips to hold them if it had been one of Chris's boxes?