Early Wheatstone treble

[March Hare]

At a recent festival I bought a Wheatstone 40 key treble number 1332.  Not a great rarity I know, but I was very pleased to get it.  Sold in 1847 to Cramer and Co (a music shop in Regent Street opposite Conduit Street, so very close to Wheatstones) according to the Wayne ledger.

 

The thumbstraps were broken and there was a big split in the bellows so I expected it to be in a bad state.  There was evidence of previous patching with leather and gummed tape.  However, when I opened it up it was quite clean inside and the bellows could be fixed with glue and fine-weave linen cloth over the broken kid-leather hinges.  The thumbstraps were strengthened with linen to make it playable.

 

It appears to be totally original - pads, valves etc and the reeds untouched since it was made.  Tuning is as expected - what I take to be high-pitch and meantone (?).  Just two reeds in total needed to be sharpened a touch to bring them into tune with their reversals and octaves.

 

Not a flashy concertina, but the features are in line with similar ones in the Concertina Museum (green leather bellows with silk on base, nickel reeds in square-ended brass shoes etc). 

 

 

Even after nearly 200 years it plays very well and sounds lovely - any faults in my recording (below) are mine, not the instrument.  The pine baffles are very close to the fretwork but the sound is loud, resonant and full (no edginess or brashness) and quite uniform across the instrument.  I don’t mean to overrate it - I’m not selling my Edeophone just yet.  But I have not heard an instrument of this age and set-up before, so it is a pleasure for me to experience.

 

 

 

PS.  All my ECs have always been in equal temperament - that’s fine for me.  Now I have an EC in my hands in meantone, I understand how the genius Charles Wheatstone could make the major thirds pure (all except two) without the player having to think about it - a beautiful and elegant layout.   What a man.

 

Thanks for reading,  March