Any ID ideas?

[david robertson]

This one's a bit of a puzzle - to me, at least ! It's a well-made Bb/F 38k Anglo, with riveted action and orthogonal rather than radial reedpans (like Crabb and Jeffries), BUT it has slightly raised ends, and no numbering other than an ink- stamped 16 in all the usual places, which I take to be a batch number.

One slightly distinctive feature is the unusually large circular threaded inserts for the strap adjuster screws.

Any suggestions or informed speculation would be most gratefully received.

[Mike Jones]

Hi David,

The squared off hand rest and the cylindrical wire levers in the action box make me think it is a Jones and the two early Jones concertinas I have had were the same, plus both sets of strap bolts were  between 3.6 and 3.87mm diameter although they were screwed directly into the woof of the frame. In addition, mine had the reference number stamped into the base of the reed pan, as well as one side of the bellows frame

I could be wrong, others are more knowledgeable than me.

Mike

[Stephen Chambers]

It appears to be typical of the work of the South London maker Thomas Shakespeare to me.

[david robertson]

Thank you both very much for your suggestions.

I notice, Stephen, that Chris Algar has a similar-looking instrument on his website at the moment, about which he says: "People tend to refer to them as ‘Shakespeares’, but seeing as Shakespeare did mark his instruments, we find it highly unlikely that any unmarked anglo is associated with him."

i guess the only way to square these two views would be if Mr Shakespeare failed to mark just some of his creations?

Incidentally, I don't know if this is significant, but the bellows on this one, which appear to be original, have Jeffries-pattern papers.

[wunks]

The fretwork , although not the same, has similar elements and spacings as my Jeffries duet.  The action also looks the same but I only have the one example to go by.

 

[Alex West]

David

 

The fretwork, reeds and action all look identical to an instrument I have which was identified as a Shakespeare by someone much more knowledgeable than me.

 

I'm not arguing with you, Stephen, but weren't there 2 (related) Shakespeare makers?  One I believe identified his instruments and had very fancy engraving with bird motifs.

 

Alex West

[Stephen Chambers]

9 hours ago, david robertson said:

I notice, Stephen, that Chris Algar has a similar-looking instrument on his website at the moment, about which he says: "People tend to refer to them as ‘Shakespeares’, but seeing as Shakespeare did mark his instruments, we find it highly unlikely that any unmarked anglo is associated with him."

i guess the only way to square these two views would be if Mr Shakespeare failed to mark just some of his creations?

 

To be honest, I'm astonished by that statement, in that I've seen/had/repaired dozens of Shakespeare concertinas, especially when I was living in London, Anglo, English, and duet, and I have never come across one that was actually marked T. Shakespeare. The only name-stamping that I've seen on them has been "Mozart & Co - Maker TS" on a few of them. But the vast majority have been nameless, and in identifying them I'm only going on what I've observed of the latter, and what I was told by old-timers half a century ago.

 

And, at first glance, the one in your photos shows what I'd consider two very distinctive and tell-tale features - the "acorn" shaped piece of fretwork in the front corners, and the excessive amount of screw-threading on the lever ends.

 

Quote

Incidentally, I don't know if this is significant, but the bellows on this one, which appear to be original, have Jeffries-pattern papers.

 

You can easily conclude far too much from bellows papers, and gold-tooling, the "Jeffries" ones predate the existence of that business, and (Shakespeare sellers) J. J. Vickers listed the papers for sale in at least one of their price lists, though Shakespeare bellows were more-typically plain black.

[Stephen Chambers]

25 minutes ago, Alex West said:

I'm not arguing with you, Stephen, but weren't there 2 (related) Shakespeare makers?  One I believe identified his instruments and had very fancy engraving with bird motifs.

 

No, Wes Williams thought there was another at one stage Alex, and opened the thread Shakespeare - One Or Two?, about it in 2003, but there was no evidence at all to support it.

 

I did some detailed research on the family, which (incidentally) showed he was descended from two generations of engineers.

[Alex West]

Many thanks Stephen - I stand corrected

 

Alex West

[david robertson]

Thank you to all. Not for the first time, I find myself thinking how lucky we all are to have such an encyclopaedic fund of knowledge at our fingertips.