When did the production of Anglo Concertinas start in Italy?

[Takayuki YAGI]

I just noticed that Italian made English concertinas were introduced as new models in FreeReed Magazine No.17 (Jan./Feb. 1974).

https://www.concertinamuseum.com/FreeReed/FR17.pdf

Then a question came up: When did the production of Anglo Concertinas start in Italy?

[Daniel Hersh]

4 hours ago, Takayuki YAGI said:

I just noticed that Italian made English concertinas were introduced as new models in FreeReed Magazine No.17 (Jan./Feb. 1974).

https://www.concertinamuseum.com/FreeReed/FR17.pdf

Then a question came up: When did the production of Anglo Concertinas start in Italy?

Well...an article about Marcello Bastari by Oliver Heatwole in the Aug.-Sept. 1983 issue of Mugwumps magazine said, "Some wholesalers wanted large quantities of concertinas, but there was no Italian firm able to make them, there then being in Italy one company (now long out of business) that made concertinas, but only in small numbers.  Dr. Bastari started his own company, in 1949, with an initial order of 100 concertinas.  Success was immediate and growth followed.  This was the beginning of Italian predominance in manufacturing German type concertinas."

 

If that is accurate, then I think one can assume that they were in made in Italy before 1949 by that mysterious "one company (now long out of business)".  I have wondered if that company might have been Frontalini, but I doubt we will ever know for sure, and I also doubt that we'll know when that company started making concertinas, or whether there was another Italian maker before 1949..  

[Takayuki YAGI]

Thank you Daniel for letting me know, very informative.

[Stephen Chambers]

10 hours ago, Daniel Hersh said:

If that is accurate, then I think one can assume that they were in made in Italy before 1949 by that mysterious "one company (now long out of business)".  I have wondered if that company might have been Frontalini, but I doubt we will ever know for sure, and I also doubt that we'll know when that company started making concertinas, or whether there was another Italian maker before 1949..  

 

Oh, but there was Daniel, a century earlier in fact - in that Bastari officially started out in 1952 (rather than 1949, which Dr. Marcello Bastari said in that interview).

 

Before accordion manufacturing started in Italy pioneers of the business, such as Giacomo Alunni from Nocera Umbra in 1850, Giovanni Cingolani from Recanati in 1856, and Lorenzo Ploner from Trieste in 1862, started making concertinas.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Stephen Chambers

[Takayuki YAGI]

6 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

Before accordion manufacturing started in Italy pioneers of the business, such as Giacomo Alunni from Nocera Umbra in 1850, Giovanni Cingolani from Recanati in 1856, and Lorenzo Ploner from Trieste in 1862, started making concertinas.

Thank you Stephen for letting me know. I had never heard about them. Did they have German fingering system or English fingering system ?

According to your "Annotated Catalogue" page, the earliest of the Italian production (1850) was almost the same time as Nickolds' Anglo-German concertina in England.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Takayuki YAGI

[Daniel Hersh]

10 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

 

Oh, but there was Daniel, a century earlier in fact - in that Bastari officially started out in 1952 (rather than 1949, which Dr. Marcello Bastari said in that interview).

 

Before accordion manufacturing started in Italy pioneers of the business, such as Giacomo Alunni from Nocera Umbra in 1850, Giovanni Cingolani from Recanati in 1856, and Lorenzo Ploner from Trieste in 1862, started making concertinas.

 

Thanks, Stephen!  I was hoping you would chime in on this one.  Do you have any info about the period between 1862 and 1952?