Lachenal / Wheatstone 30 button C/G Anglo # 91882
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Comments
A strange hybrid concertina. The ends of this 30 button instrument are made of mahogany-faced plywood roughly cut in a typical Lachenal pattern, the buttons are plastic ('Erinoid' ?) it has 91882 stamped on the inside of the bellow frames, 'hooked plate' pivot posts and quite strangely, lightweight, aluminium reeds shoes with brass plates and steel reeds typical of those seen on later Wheatstones. Some of the reed shoes show slight signs of oxidation which is a characteristic of using aluminium. It is difficult to classify this instrument; the serial number, if Lachenal, would put it circa 1900 but plastic buttons were not used until the 1920s by Lachenal and much later (1950s) by Wheatstone. Curiouser and curiouser........
This concertina is being offered for sale as a restoration project with a set of aluminium reeds and a strange history.
Historical context: date uncertain
Features
keys: C / G
tuned to modern pitch: ??
reeds: steel in aluminium shoes
ends: mahogany ply
bellows: 5 fold
box: fibre with metal edges
general condition: unrestored
for sale: SOLD
