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

[wes williams]

Just a little postscript  - I've recently discovered that James A Travers of Bridgewater (or Bridgwater for Wolf) Somerset, the concertina dealer mentioned, died in Oct-Dec 1952 in the Taunton District aged 62. That has taken me close on 20 years to discover. I knew it was sometime around then as the ICA had just formed when he died. Info via Free BMD

I don't know why, but discovery of a person's first name seems to make them more real to me. Here he is circa 1950 :-

Edited January 13, 2021 by wes williams
Added photo

[Pikeyh]

On 11/27/2019 at 9:41 PM, Stephen Chambers said:

 

The ledger calls it, and several more of them, an "A.G. Duet" and I know of other examples (some of which have been discussed here in the past) that are indeed very large Anglos with a bass row such as I've described - I'm not guessing or making this up...

 

In the thread Wheatstone anglo special gavdav said:

Hi all - in response to Steve's questions and my own curiosity I started looking through the Wheatstone ledgers to see how many of these things exist(ed). Now, the ledgers are nto very consistent in their labelling of things - I own 30995 and 30998 and both are distinctly the same system - three anglo rows and one duet row - but one is labelled AG Duet and the Other AG Octo - so I have included here a few of the unusually large anglos I spotted as well, like Steve's. I'd be interested if anyone has one of these and can pass on any more info, but here is half an hour's worth of trawling.

 

If, as someone suggested, the AG duets were in fact Jeffries system duets, does anyone own a wheatstone Jeffires Duet to help confirm this supposition?

 

Sadly steve - you're not unique  And I think 31693 is currently leading the boxzilla stakes.I've included a bit of info - what the ledger refers to em as, how many keys and if I know who has it  Be nice if anyone wants to or can add to this.

 

28474 -48 keys (AG)

28493 – 48 keys (AG special) (Tony – Doodle on c.net)

28898 – 50 keys

28929 - 50 keys

28930 – 61 keys (AG special) owned by Steve Gardham

30096 – 48 keys (AG Duet)

30740 – 68 keys (AG Duet)

30995 – 46 keys (AG Duet) owned by Gavin Davenport G/D

30998 – 50 keys (AG Octo – AG Duet system) owned by Gavin Davenport C/G

31282 – 72 keys (AG Octo)

31693 - 74 Keys (AG mag octo)

31850 – 70 keys (Anglo duet)

31902 – 54 keys (AG duet octo)

32087 – 64 keys (AG octo)

32286 – 56 keys (AG Duet, octo)

32557 – 53 keys (AG Duet all over metal)

 

29366 is a 61 key Aeola Jeffries Duet in Bb - I’ve just bought it from Chris Algar 

[Pikeyh]

I’ve bought this very concertina ! 
it’s in low c.

I’ve attached the keyboard layout 

[Pikeyh]

[Mark Davies]

I have a number of photographs of Jim Harvey,which on did you want? I knew JIm fairly well as he was a great friend of Harry Hatton of Haydock,with whom I played the English concertina for many years before concentrating on the Anglo.Jim sourced my first 40 Key Wheatstone owned by Eric Holland of Swanage.I am in Ireland until the middle of June so cannot access my photographs at the moment.

[Pikeyh]

Thanks Mark , any of him playing the large Jeffries duet would be great! 
 

cheers

Kevin