Chris Drinkwater Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 (edited) Someone is selling a concertina he says his grandfather bought from Alf Edwards some 50 years ago. It is Wheatstone English treble on Ebay - link here - and he is asking rather a lot of money for it. Hmmm! According to the Wheatstone Ledgers, serial no. 33075, is a model 17a, which is a black Aeola 48 key tenor-treble, starting at tenor C and going up to F, above the third ledger line. However, the seller says it has silver ends. No pictures of it available yet to verify. Seller says he will add some. Chris Edited to correct a mistake in the text. Edited January 23, 2012 by Chris Drinkwater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kautilya Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Alf Edward's grandson is selling his grandfather's Wheatstone English treble on Ebay - link here - and is asking rather a lot of money for it. Hmmm! According to the Wheatstone Ledgers, serial no. 33075, is a model 17a, which is a black Aeola 48 key tenor-treble, starting at tenor C and going up to F, above the third ledger line. However, the seller says it has silver ends. No pictures of it available yet to verify. Seller says he will add some. Chris Well what about this "vintage" one (a steal at only 41 quid so far) from, appropriately, "Eyewash" (or shd that be spit in your eye?) and his/her other items include a bowler hat, just to get that full music hall, Percy Honri effect http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-ACCORDION-SCHOLER-SQUEEZE-BOX-HARD-CASE-GOOD-CONDITION-/270892119213?_trksid=p4340.m1374&_trkparms=algo%3DPI.WATCH%26its%3DC%252BS%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D5%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5755708153199246919 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Drinkwater Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 The seller has now uploaded some photos of the concertina and it does have metal ends. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptarmigan Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 .... the seller says it has silver ends. I'm curious. As they say, the devil is in the detail, but for a £5,000 starting price, are these ends really made of solid Silver, or just Silver plated, or the usual Nickel? After all, elsewhere on eBay, you have to be very, very careful how you describe antique items you are trying to sell. Two days ago, her indoors had money refunded, when an item she bought in good faith as a Bronze, turned out to be just made of Spelter. Cheers, Dick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveS Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 As they say, the devil is in the detail, but for a £5,000 starting price, are these ends really made of solid Silver, or just Silver plated, or the usual Nickel? In the description is says 'silver/nickel end panels'. Looking at the wear on the ends I'd say they are plated. £5k seems a little unrealistic - there's a nice restored TT on eBay currently at £3k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 In the description is says 'silver/nickel end panels'.Looking at the wear on the ends I'd say they are plated. Not sure what "wear" you're seeing. I would expect the metal under plated ends to be brass and to show the brass color clearly where there's heavy wear. I don't think I see anything like that. I think the ends looks more like polished dural. Either way, it would seem that the ends are replacements, since the ledger entry says "Black". (I was thinking that the "black" might mean black paint -- on dural and later removed? -- but there seem to be far too many "black" entries in the pages near #33075, and none saying "ebony". So I guess "black" means black wooden ends, but maybe not actually "ebony".) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveS Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) In the description is says 'silver/nickel end panels'.Looking at the wear on the ends I'd say they are plated. Not sure what "wear" you're seeing. I would expect the metal under plated ends to be brass and to show the brass color clearly where there's heavy wear. I don't think I see anything like that. I think the ends looks more like polished dural. Either way, it would seem that the ends are replacements, since the ledger entry says "Black". (I was thinking that the "black" might mean black paint -- on dural and later removed? -- but there seem to be far too many "black" entries in the pages near #33075, and none saying "ebony". So I guess "black" means black wooden ends, but maybe not actually "ebony".) Jim - there appears to be wear close to the finger rests where the plating seems to have worn away. I noticed that the ledgers say black - so chances are the ends are replacements. Edited January 23, 2012 by SteveS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptarmigan Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 .... - there's a nice restored TT on eBay currently at £3k. Well Steve, I can certainly vouch for that little beauty! Cheers, Dick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Crabb Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 (edited) 33075. Studying the pictures, I personally think that the metal tops are original. As with most new Aeolas of this period, metal tops were available as an alternative to wood at extra cost. ( From 1935 Pricelist - 'Aeolas can be fitted with Raised Nickel-plated ends, if desired, at £1 10s. extra'. etc.) Due to the slightly different process when making instruments with metal tops of this style (inset rolled/folded edge), to retrofit such tops would have been a relatively costly exercise. I am aware the ledger shows 'black' but it is quite possible that the order for this one was changed during manufacture and the ledger entry not corrected. It is not unknown for entries to be incorrect. Indeed, a nice Wheatsone Amboyna 56 shown to me some years back was described in the ledgers as E (Ebony) ??. As there is little noticeable difference in colour between the base metal and plating in the worn areas, I would suggest the tops of 33075 are N/Silver and nickel plated. Nickel plating was generally preferred as this had a 'softer' appearance than chrome. Just my thoughts. Geoff Edited January 24, 2012 by Geoffrey Crabb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david robertson Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Well, it has ended up on my bench for restoration, and I can confirm that the metal ends are original, and that there is a little loss of plating below each finger slide. Other than that, they are in pretty good nick, as is the rest of the instrument. Best of all is the state of the reeds - absolutely untouched since they left the Wheatstone factory, and in concert pitch too, several years before the standard was agreed! What I can't confirm is that the instrument ever had anything to do with Alf Edwards - though it did come complete with several sheets of rather badly typed lyrics and some music to popular songs of the 40's and 50's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conzertino Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 I can't wait to get the baby back from restoration! I asked David to convert it to F-tenor ( or alto, as I like to call this tuning ) by replacing and changing a few reeds ( we will keep the original reeds, though! ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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