William Jeffries

[des tracey]

Some time ago I purchased an anglo concertina marked William Jeffries.

It has some unusual features when compared to a C Jeffries e.g. flatstock for the levers, extra reeds (36 button) are placed radially as opposed to inboard on earlier Jeffries and the button/note layout is not unlike Wheatstone.

 

Information on William Jeffries seems to be scarce, but I have no doubt that some of you will probably have come across an instrument of his before.

 

Pictures of the instrument in question can be viewed at

 

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l70/dest...iam%20Jeffries/

[wes williams]

Thanks Des,

 

William Jeffries (1866 - ?) concertinas are very rare, although he was part of the Jeffries family firm for a long while. The total of our knowledge about William can be found in an article Charles Jeffries: the Man and His Family written by a group of us. I'd suspect that this instrument belongs to the same kind of time frame as those being made by his older brother Charles (at Aldershot Road, Kilburn), which often have some kind of inscription, dating them to around the mid 1920s. The '38 Craven Road, London NW' is in Harlesden, near where his younger brother Thomas was still using the 'Jeffries Bros.' name up to the end of the 1950s.

 

best wishes ..wes

[des tracey]

Thanks Des,

 

William Jeffries (1866 - ?) concertinas are very rare, although he was part of the Jeffries family firm for a long while. The total of our knowledge about William can be found in an article Charles Jeffries: the Man and His Family written by a group of us. I'd suspect that this instrument belongs to the same kind of time frame as those being made by his older brother Charles (at Aldershot Road, Kilburn), which often have some kind of inscription, dating them to around the mid 1920s. The '38 Craven Road, London NW' is in Harlesden, near where his younger brother Thomas was still using the 'Jeffries Bros.' name up to the end of the 1950s.

 

best wishes ..wes

Thanks Wes,

 

I read the article on Jeffries with interest. The address 38 Craven Rd, seems to have been his home address also.

I wonder if any other subscribers have a William Jeffries box, and if so have they any pictures to share.

As I wrote in my first post, the construction is somewhat different to the earlier Jeffries boxes and the fact that its 36 key (like Wheatstone) and has flat-stock levers (like Wheatstone) I wonder did he use Wheatstone parts??

Did Jeffries Bros. instruments of that era have similar construction?

So many questions....

 

Des

[wes williams]

As I wrote in my first post, the construction is somewhat different to the earlier Jeffries boxes and the fact that its 36 key (like Wheatstone) and has flat-stock levers (like Wheatstone) I wonder did he use Wheatstone parts??

Did Jeffries Bros. instruments of that era have similar construction?

So many questions....

 

Des

Des,

The man to answer those kind of questions is Stephen Chambers, who would normally be here, but is suffering from shingles at the moment. Hopefully he'll be better soon, and then be back to answer you.

[des tracey]

As I wrote in my first post, the construction is somewhat different to the earlier Jeffries boxes and the fact that its 36 key (like Wheatstone) and has flat-stock levers (like Wheatstone) I wonder did he use Wheatstone parts??

Did Jeffries Bros. instruments of that era have similar construction?

So many questions....

 

Des

Des,

The man to answer those kind of questions is Stephen Chambers, who would normally be here, but is suffering from shingles at the moment. Hopefully he'll be better soon, and then be back to answer you.

Thanks Wes,

 

I haven't spoken to Stephen in a while and didn't know that he was ill. I hope he is recovering well and I will give hime a bell.

Also, I might make my way down to his part of the country in the next couple of weeks and I'll bring along the enigma?..sorry concertina in question.

 

Des

[DavidFR]

Thanks Wes,

 

I read the article on Jeffries with interest. The address 38 Craven Rd, seems to have been his home address also.

I wonder if any other subscribers have a William Jeffries box, and if so have they any pictures to share.

As I wrote in my first post, the construction is somewhat different to the earlier Jeffries boxes and the fact that its 36 key (like Wheatstone) and has flat-stock levers (like Wheatstone) I wonder did he use Wheatstone parts??

Did Jeffries Bros. instruments of that era have similar construction?

So many questions....

 

Des

Des,

 

Interesting what you bring up about 36-button instruments. I know someone who has a 36-button C. Jeffries box in C/G; I'll have to take a closer look at it now and see what the levers are like. I didn't realize that 36-buttons were so unusual for Jeffries make.

 

-David

[des tracey]

Thanks Wes,

 

I read the article on Jeffries with interest. The address 38 Craven Rd, seems to have been his home address also.

I wonder if any other subscribers have a William Jeffries box, and if so have they any pictures to share.

As I wrote in my first post, the construction is somewhat different to the earlier Jeffries boxes and the fact that its 36 key (like Wheatstone) and has flat-stock levers (like Wheatstone) I wonder did he use Wheatstone parts??

Did Jeffries Bros. instruments of that era have similar construction?

So many questions....

 

Des

Des,

 

Interesting what you bring up about 36-button instruments. I know someone who has a 36-button C. Jeffries box in C/G; I'll have to take a closer look at it now and see what the levers are like. I didn't realize that 36-buttons were so unusual for Jeffries make.

 

-David

David,

 

I don't know (with my limited experience) how rare Jeffries 36 Button anglos are, I've never seen another, but I have no doubt that the knowledgeable readers of this forum are the people to ask. Maybe there are more 36 button Jeffries out there.

[Clive Thorne]

David,

 

I don't know (with my limited experience) how rare Jeffries 36 Button anglos are, I've never seen another, but I have no doubt that the knowledgeable readers of this forum are the people to ask. Maybe there are more 36 button Jeffries out there.

 

 

I've got one! Mine is a 'C. Jeffries', smaller than normal being about 145mm across the flats. Colin Dipper reckons that it originally had wooden ends, and was probably built largely Crabbs. It looks like it originally had novelty effects on the 'drone' button, but these were long gone when I got hold of it (about 20 years ago). I recently (about 2 years ago) had Colin fit reeds to the drone button (C pull and Bb push).

 

One oddity on it is that the top push B on the G row is actually a Bb, which can be useful in Gm, but can be frustrating at other times. Does have anyone else have this button tuned to Bb?

 

 

Clive

[Paul Groff]

I don't know (with my limited experience) how rare Jeffries 36 Button anglos are, I've never seen another, but I have no doubt that the knowledgeable readers of this forum are the people to ask. Maybe there are more 36 button Jeffries out there.

 

One oddity on it is that the top push B on the G row is actually a Bb, which can be useful in Gm, but can be frustrating at other times. Does have anyone else have this button tuned to Bb?

 

 

Clive,

 

It is common for John Crabb and Jeffries C/G anglos to have that button tuned Bb (press)/G# (draw), especially when they have more than 31 buttons. It is more-or-less "standard" (with exceptions of course) on the 38 and 44 key anglos.

 

Early Crabbs and Jeffries with buttons layouts between 31 and 38 buttons are not uncommon, and some have 36 keys. What is unusual about Des's William Jeffries is that the 36 buttons are physically arranged like those of a 36 key Wheatstone, i.e. in 3 rows of 6 buttons each per side. Can't remember, but Des's instrument may also have a LH thumb button making it really a 37 key + air. But in many hundreds of instruments I can't remember having previously seen that (3 X 6) + (3 X 6) keypad on any John Crabb or Jeffries family instrument. Later Crabb family anglos seem often to have been made in the patterns more typical for Lachenals/Wheatstones (30, 32, 36, 40 keys sometimes with additional keys for novelty effects), as well as in configurations like the early John Crabb and Jeffries anglos.

 

I'm not saying there were no other such early Crabb or Jeffries with the same button pattern as Des's, just that I haven't seen them yet. Together with the flat levers, that makes the construction of this William Jeffries interesting to me. However, as Des may want to share, others of its features are decidedly non-Wheatstone-like.

 

Paul

[des tracey]

I don't know (with my limited experience) how rare Jeffries 36 Button anglos are, I've never seen another, but I have no doubt that the knowledgeable readers of this forum are the people to ask. Maybe there are more 36 button Jeffries out there.

 

One oddity on it is that the top push B on the G row is actually a Bb, which can be useful in Gm, but can be frustrating at other times. Does have anyone else have this button tuned to Bb?

 

 

Clive,

 

It is common for John Crabb and Jeffries C/G anglos to have that button tuned Bb (press)/G# (draw), especially when they have more than 31 buttons. It is more-or-less "standard" (with exceptions of course) on the 38 and 44 key anglos.

 

Early Crabbs and Jeffries with buttons layouts between 31 and 38 buttons are not uncommon, and some have 36 keys. What is unusual about Des's William Jeffries is that the 36 buttons are physically arranged like those of a 36 key Wheatstone, i.e. in 3 rows of 6 buttons each per side. Can't remember, but Des's instrument may also have a LH thumb button making it really a 37 key + air. But in many hundreds of instruments I can't remember having previously seen that (3 X 6) + (3 X 6) keypad on any John Crabb or Jeffries family instrument. Later Crabb family anglos seem often to have been made in the patterns more typical for Lachenals/Wheatstones (30, 32, 36, 40 keys sometimes with additional keys for novelty effects), as well as in configurations like the early John Crabb and Jeffries anglos.

 

I'm not saying there were no other such early Crabb or Jeffries with the same button pattern as Des's, just that I haven't seen them yet. Together with the flat levers, that makes the construction of this William Jeffries interesting to me. However, as Des may want to share, others of its features are decidedly non-Wheatstone-like.

 

Paul

Thanks Paul,

 

You are right in that this instrument has a l/h thumb button making it 38 buttons overall. As I said in the earlier post, given my lack of exposure to a sufficient number of concertinas, I was not sure if the number of buttons was an unusual feature (do what are referred to as 38 button Jeffries have the same number, or more?).

 

Whatever about my limited experience of Jeffries, I've had at one time or another 6 Jeffries anglos but never owned a Wheatstone, therefore the features that are 'decidedly non-Wheatstone-like' would probably escape my attention.

 

I have no problem sharing whatever information is to be gleaned from this concertina, therefore if more pictures are required for clarification I would be glad to post them, or indeed answer any questions that might arise.

 

Des

[Clive Thorne]

One oddity on it is that the top push B on the G row is actually a Bb, which can be useful in Gm, but can be frustrating at other times. Does have anyone else have this button tuned to Bb?

 

 

Clive,

 

It is common for John Crabb and Jeffries C/G anglos to have that button tuned Bb (press)/G# (draw), especially when they have more than 31 buttons. It is more-or-less "standard" (with exceptions of course) on the 38 and 44 key anglos.

 

 

Thanks for the info Paul, I'm relieved to know that mine isn't a special! Although mine is Bb on the push, but still the F# on the draw.

 

My right hand is 6/7/5 my left hand is 6/6/5 + the thumb which I guess is fairly normal then?

 

Clive

[Stephen Chambers]

William Jeffries (1866 - ?) concertinas are very rare, although he was part of the Jeffries family firm for a long while. The total of our knowledge about William can be found in an article Charles Jeffries: the Man and His Family written by a group of us.

Wes,

 

They're so rare that I've never seen, nor even heard of a William Jeffries concertina before. It's a very rare beast.

 

There seems to be one significant fact missing from the article, which is that for the 1901 Census William gave his occupation as Metal Music Reed Voicer & Repairer, so he appears to have been the one who made the Jeffries reeds by that time, perhaps having taken over that role from his father Charles, who is listed as a Retired Musical Instrument Dealer.

 

I'd suspect that this instrument belongs to the same kind of time frame as those being made by his older brother Charles (at Aldershot Road, Kilburn), which often have some kind of inscription, dating them to around the mid 1920s. The '38 Craven Road, London NW' is in Harlesden, near where his younger brother Thomas was still using the 'Jeffries Bros.' name up to the end of the 1950s.

My 1937 Music Trade Directory shows that Jeffries Bros., Concertina makers, were still in business at 18, Lincoln Mews, Kilburn, N.W.6 at that time, though we don't know which members of the family were still involved. And the Irish Accordion player John Clifford, who moved to London in the 1930s, volunteered to me that he'd got reeds in his piano accordion replaced by people called Jeffries in Kilburn around then.

 

I've been trying to find more information about William in the meantime, but all I've found so far has come from historical telephone directories that are just starting to become available online. He is listed, though only for the years 1930-32, at 38, Craven Park, N.W.10, with the telephone number WILlsden 6891.

 

By the way, the lack of the 10 in the postal district code on William Jeffries' name stamp suggests that he was already making concertinas in his own right by 1917 (when the numbered subdivisions were introduced "as a wartime measure" - they're still with us!). From 1917 onwards his postal district was N.W.10.

Edited October 2, 2006 by Stephen Chambers

[Davelee]

William Jeffries (1866 - ?) concertinas are very rare, although he was part of the Jeffries family firm for a long while. The total of our knowledge about William can be found in an article Charles Jeffries: the Man and His Family written by a group of us.

Wes,

 

They're so rare that I've never seen, nor even heard of a William Jeffries concertina before. It's a very rare beast.

 

There seems to be one significant fact missing from the article, which is that for the 1901 Census William gave his occupation as Metal Music Reed Voicer & Repairer, so he appears to have been the one who made the Jeffries reeds by that time, perhaps having taken over that role from his father Charles, who is listed as a Retired Musical Instrument Dealer.

 

I'd suspect that this instrument belongs to the same kind of time frame as those being made by his older brother Charles (at Aldershot Road, Kilburn), which often have some kind of inscription, dating them to around the mid 1920s. The '38 Craven Road, London NW' is in Harlesden, near where his younger brother Thomas was still using the 'Jeffries Bros.' name up to the end of the 1950s.

My 1937 Music Trade Directory shows that Jeffries Bros., Concertina makers, were still in business at 18, Lincoln Mews, Kilburn, N.W.6 at that time, though we don't know which members of the family were still involved. And the Irish Accordion player John Clifford, who moved to London in the 1930s, volunteered to me that he'd got reeds in his piano accordion replaced by people called Jeffries in Kilburn around then.

 

I've been trying to find more information about William in the meantime, but all I've found so far has come from historical telephone directories that are just starting to become available online. He is listed, though only for the years 1930-32, at 38, Craven Park, N.W.10, with the telephone number WILlsden 6891.

 

By the way, the lack of the 10 in the postal district code on William Jeffries' name stamp suggests that he was already making concertinas in his own right by 1917 (when the numbered subdivisions were introduced "as a wartime measure" - they're still with us!). From 1917 onwards his postal district was N.W.10.

[wes williams]

Wes,

They're so rare that I've never seen, nor even heard of a William Jeffries concertina before. It's a very rare beast.

I'd heard of one many years ago, and one (Des's?) went the emails rounds recently, probably when your machine was down.

My 1937 Music Trade Directory shows that Jeffries Bros., Concertina makers, were still in business at 18, Lincoln Mews, Kilburn, N.W.6 at that time, though we don't know which members of the family were still involved. And the Irish Accordion player John Clifford, who moved to London in the 1930s, volunteered to me that he'd got reeds in his piano accordion replaced by people called Jeffries in Kilburn around then.

 

I've been trying to find more information about William in the meantime, but all I've found so far has come from historical telephone directories that are just starting to become available online. He is listed, though only for the years 1930-32, at 38, Craven Park, N.W.10, with the telephone number WILlsden 6891.

I've checked that Lincoln Mews address in a contemporary Kellys about the same year, and on maps. It leads down to the cemetary from the main road, just north west of Aldershot Road. But there is no listing for it, and the street numbers only went up to 10 or 12. If it still existed, it must have been a fairly insignificant building. (Edit: and only Charles is listed, as a resident, no other brothers)

By the way, the lack of the 10 in the postal district code on William Jeffries' name stamp suggests that he was already making concertinas in his own right by 1917 (when the numbered subdivisions were introduced "as a wartime measure" - they're still with us!). From 1917 onwards his postal district was N.W.10.

Always possible. But then again, I refuse to use my 'postal town' instead of the one I live in, so maybe he was stubborn too!

Edited October 2, 2006 by wes williams

[Stephen Chambers]

I've been trying to find more information about William in the meantime, but all I've found so far has come from historical telephone directories that are just starting to become available online. He is listed, though only for the years 1930-32, at 38, Craven Park, N.W.10, with the telephone number WILlsden 6891.

And I've had an email from Dave Lee, in the meantime, saying that:

 

As you can see i tried to reply to your comments on Cnet but the system beat me!!

 

William was also in the 1935 phone book still at the same address but his number was WIL 1592. That was page 954 London A-K aug 1935. If you go back to the 1930 directory immediately above William is i think his son William Earl 21avenue NW6 WIL 1773.

 

According to Sheila Peckett ( Charles jnr grandaughter) who wrote to me at the end of July, was told by her mother that William emigrated to Australia to join his son ( presumably William Earl ). Now Sheila also said that she had a photo of a relative in Australian army uniform ( William Earl?) but at present she couldnt find it. So i assume that if it was W.E. then it must have been in WW2 when he would have been in his 40's.

 

Going back to the phone directories it would appear to me that William was the only one of the family that had a phone that i have found so far. Which i suppose in 1930 was quite a prestige instrument.

[Stephen Chambers]

By the way, the lack of the 10 in the postal district code on William Jeffries' name stamp suggests that he was already making concertinas in his own right by 1917 (when the numbered subdivisions were introduced "as a wartime measure" - they're still with us!). From 1917 onwards his postal district was N.W.10.

Always possible. But then again, I refuse to use my 'postal town' instead of the one I live in, so maybe he was stubborn too!

Wes,

 

Ah, but you're using a geographically more specific address by doing that, whereas N.W. is much less specific (denoting all of North West London) than N.W.10. (covering only Harlesden, Willesden, South Neasden and Kensal Green). I think most people in business would rather be more specific about their address, and certainly Charlie Jeffries (ii) used N.W.6 in the early '20s.

Edited October 2, 2006 by Stephen Chambers