Roylance?

[Chris Timson]

Hi,

 

Just looked at a concertina in an auction. Poor blighter was a hell of a mess with battered and missing fretwork, warped reed pans and ends and more leaks than Wales. Looked a lot like a Lachenal 30 button rosewood ended jobby, but the rails didn't have the steel reed trade mark on. The label said "Roylance, Tott.Ct Rd, No 148". Anyone one know anything about Roylance?

 

Having said that, this site says

Roylance was more of a dealer than manufacturer. He was however, an accomplished concertinist and wrote many tutors.

So would this have been a Lach? Did Lachenal make concertinas without the trade mark?

 

TIA

 

Chris

[Stephen Chambers]

The label said "Roylance, Tott.Ct Rd, No 148". Anyone one know anything about Roylance?

Chris,

 

To quote from an earlier post:

 

I shall let Charles Roylance answer for himself :

 

I think as a teacher of the English concertina since 1865, I may be allowed to say a few words on the above subject. I formed English concertina classes and my concertina band in 1869, and gave my first band concert on March 29th, 1870, at the Benjamin Franklin Hall in Castle Street, and my last band concert in Store Street Hall, Tottenham Court Road, on October 30th, 1890. ... I have worked very hard in the interest of the concertina, and published selections for concertina and piano, as also a concertina band journal, arranged for treble, alto, tenor and bass, with pianoforte accompaniment ...

(From a letter, by Charles Roylance, to the Editor of The Evening News and Post, quoted in Musical Opinion & Music Trade Review April 1, 1894, p. 454)

With a little support from George Jones :

 

I was pleased to see that my friend Mr. Roylance had taken up the subject of the English concertina.

 

(From a letter, by George Jones, ibid.)

 

Charles G. Roylance was born in Marylebone, London, about 1841. He taught, and was a major seller of, the concertina in central London's Tottenham Court Road area. I think it safe to assert that he was very much involved in the London concertina scene. He would, no doubt, have been familiar with most of the makers, especially with Wheatstone's (evidenced both by the above, and by a very large number of entries in that firm's ledgers) and George Jones (evidenced by the letter of support from Jones).

 

Did Lachenal make concertinas without the trade mark?

According to somebody's article on Concertina.com (Why do I bother? ) :

 

Lachenal & Co. applied for its trademark, No. 15,222, on 31st August 1878, and it was published in the Trade Marks Journal on 8th January 1879. The mark consists of a drawing of an individual, double-screwed, English-style free reed. The outline of this device, along with the words "Trade Mark" and "English Make", was thereafter stamped into the right-hand rail (handle) of the firm's Anglos in order to differentiate them from the cheap "imitation Anglos" of German make ...

So they were making them for about fifteen years without the trade mark.

 

Edited to add:

 

But my "Victorian Music Publishers" list, which I've just found, gives Roylance's address as 184, Tottenham Court Road from 1879-93. I guess the old standby of "Can I see a picture?" holds.

Edited September 22, 2006 by Stephen Chambers

[Chris Timson]

But my "Victorian Music Publishers" list, which I've just found, gives Roylance's address as 184, Tottenham Court Road from 1879-93. I guess the old standby of "Can I see a picture?" holds.

'Fraid not, it was sold at auction for £200 this morning. About right considering the condition.

 

Thanks for a very full reply, Stephen.

 

Chris

[allan atlas]

AS A LITTLE POSTSCRIPT: Roylance also arranged for the concertina and published tutors for the instrument, both English and Anglo. . . . . .one of the tutors for the English, "How to Learn the English Concertina Without a Master" (1877) contains some misleading remarks in its little "history" of the early concertina.............Allan