Airt of concertina

[Lappy]

Here’s a lovely video of Mr. Begley’s concertina:

 

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

That's an interesting video - one certainly gets a feel for the history of the object. Its interesting how it says Jeffries on the outside but on the inside it says "Wheatstone" but the Wheatstone is crudely scraped out but not entirely, also it has Jeffries button layout but radial reed pans and a very Wheatstone looking action. 

 

AND THEN! Small screw holes on the inside corners of the action box under the metal end, as if the end was originally screwed down but there are no screw holes on the metal ends.... What is going on here? Did Wheatstone try to copy a Jeffries? Did someone try to make a Wheatstone look like a Jeffries? 

 

Cant help it, the mystery is interesting. There is sometimes a question of authorship with old instruments but this one has a very chequered history. Mostly irrelevant compared to "can I play good music with this?"

[Nigel Champion]

The maker is shown as W (William) Jeffries, 38 Craven Park.  There's some discussion here:

 

 

[Chris Ghent]

Beautiful lighting and movement.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

21 hours ago, Nigel Champion said:

The maker is shown as W (William) Jeffries, 38 Craven Park.  There's some discussion here:

 

 

 

Thank you Nigel for the link to that thread, which has a nice link to the article about the Jeffries family which I will read.

 

I was asking myself "why did I miss this interesting thread?" and then realised oh wait... it must have been because it is from 2006 when I was 16 and did not know what a concertina was! 

[Mike Acott]

I have a C Jeffries 48 key baritone English,raised metal ended with radial reed pans, I am certain that the maker was Charles Junior, so the may link to boxes being made this way by the brothers but not being labeled as such. 

[wes williams]

4 hours ago, Jake Middleton-Metcalfe said:

Thank you Nigel for the link to that thread, which has a nice link to the article about the Jeffries family which I will read.

 

I was asking myself "why did I miss this interesting thread?" and then realised oh wait... it must have been because it is from 2006 when I was 16 and did not know what a concertina was! 

Thanks for the link Nigel, and glad you found it Jake!

This ~20 year old article has a follow up at The Concertina Journal which you may also find interesting.