Guest Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Hi all I've just come across some amazing old photos of Australia concertina players, as part of the National Library of Australia's online collection. If you are interested, here is the link: http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA Cheers Morgana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 (edited) Great find Morgana..! This one here is sporting a Stanley concertina, as made in Bathurst NSW in the 19th Century. You can see his name in the design... And this one looks like it is Stanley himself... Chris Edited December 4, 2005 by Chris Ghent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 This one here is sporting a Stanley concertina, as made in Bathurst NSW in the 19th Century. You can see his name in the design... And this one looks like it is Stanley himself... Interesting. The text that goes with the picture of John Stanley says, "Famous throughout the State for his hand made Anglo concertinas, this portrait of John Stanley was copied from a tiny 'Carte de Visite' made many years ago. Stanley died in 1913." Yet the photo shows him playing an English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 At least he *is* holding a concertina. A lot of photos of "concertinas" at the State Library of Victoria are acutally button or even piano accordions. At least they got that much right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Looking at the wear in the wooden end of that Stanley concertina I wonder if it is not the same one Christian Dolislager has now. It is hard to imagine two with that amount of wear... Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Hersh Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Here's an even better picture of a Stanley: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an12545684 . I'd never even heard of these before this thread... Daniel Great find Morgana..! This one here is sporting a Stanley concertina, as made in Bathurst NSW in the 19th Century. You can see his name in the design... And this one looks like it is Stanley himself... Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted December 5, 2005 Share Posted December 5, 2005 (edited) Here's an even better picture of a Stanley: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an12545684 . I'd never even heard of these before this thread... Daniel I'm not the best source of information on Stanley, there are others on this forum who will know more, but here is what I have heard... He was a clockmaker or repairer of clocks who lived in Bathurst NSW in the late 19th century. Bathurst is not quite as far inland as what we term "outback", but it is a very inland country, dry, very cold in winter, very hot in summer. It is pastoral country, business served the land and most people were farmers or farm labourers and contractors. Concertinas were used commonly for bush dances, mostly anglos. Stanley made a number of concertinas, I have no idea how many, some were merely rebadged Lachenals. For others he made some of the parts only, importing the rest of the parts from Lachenal. I have heard he made a small number of concertinas all from his own parts but I do not know if these were the ones you see pictured in this thread. They might be an extreme rebadging effort. For reeds he is said to have used clocksprings, a good source of steel even now. There is one of his concertinas in the Horniman collection, back when the collection was online you could find a picture of it. Unfortunately it was not one of his branded wooden ended jobs, looked more like a Lachenal. Hope someone who knows more will correct my account... Chris Edited December 5, 2005 by Chris Ghent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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