91 Wheatstone and Lachenal Dates of Manufacture (Concertina)
Description
This article is from the Concertina FAQ, by Chris Timson chris@harbour.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
91 Wheatstone and Lachenal Dates of Manufacture (Concertina)
Wes Williams has written an excellent article on this subject which, if
you have access to the Internet, can be read at:-
http://www.concertina.net/wes_williams_dating.html
His article is particularly helpful if you have a non-Wheatstone
concertina, and is probably rather more accurate on Lachenals than the
information I present below.
A major project has been started to try and create some sort of master
list of Lachenal dates, by Chris Algar, Bob Gaskins, Randy Merris and
Wes Williams. If you own a Lachenal concertina you can help! Send Chris
Algar of Barleycorn Concertinas (see section 9) a note or an email giving
a brief description of your Lachenal concertina and its number. If you
still have the original bill of sale or any other way of dating its
purchase with certainty so much the better!
If you have a Wheatstone concertina and you can identify the serial
number (it is normally on one end) then this list will tell you the year
of manufacture. Sometimes, if the label has been lost from the baffle in
the older instruments, it can also be found stamped inside the bellows
frame, in the treble-most slots of the reed pan, and on the reed-pan side
of the action-box.
Serial no Year Serial no Year
1 - 499 1830/42 23500 - 23999 1904/06
500 - 999 1842/45 24000 - 24499 1906/08
1000 - 1499 1845/48 24500 - 24999 1908/10
1500 - 1999 1848/49 25000 - 25499 1910/12
2000 - 2499 1849/50 25500 - 25999 1912/13
2500 - 3499 1850/51 26000 - 26499 1913/14
3500 - 3999 1851/52 26500 - 26999 1914/16
4000 - 4999 1852/53 27000 - 27499 1916/17
5000 - 6999 1853/54 27500 - 27999 1917/19
7000 - 7999 1854/55 28000 - 28499 1919/20
8000 - 8999 1855/56 28500 - 28999 1920/21
9000 - 9999 1856/57 29000 - 29499 1921/22
10000 - 10999 1857/59 29500 - 29999 1922/24
11000 - 11999 1859/63 30000 - 30499 1924/25
12000 - 12999 1863/65 30500 - 30999 1925/26
13000 - 13999 1865/67 31000 - 31499 1926/27
14000 - 18499 1867/70 31500 - 31999 1927/29
18500 - 18999 1870/73 32000 - 32499 1929/30
19000 - 19499 1873/77 32500 - 32999 1930/33
19500 - 19999 1877/82 33000 - 33499 1933/35
20000 - 20499 1882/86 33500 - 33999 1935/36
20500 - 20999 1886/89 34000 - 34499 1936/37
21000 - 21499 1889/92 34500 - 34999 1937/38
21500 - 21999 1892/95 35000 - 35499 1938/45
22000 - 22499 1895/98 35500 - 35540 1945/51
22500 - 22999 1898/01 35541 - 36400 1951/57
23000 - 23499 1901/04 36401 - 36680 1957
This list was originally prepared by Nigel Pickles and published in
Concertina & Squeezebox, and is reproduced by permission of Joel Cowan,
editor of Concertina & Squeezebox.
Until recently I believed that Wheatstone concertinas with numbers in
the 50,000+ range were very late poor quality instruments. Not so. Bob
Gaskins has done much research in this area, and he summarises his
conclusions as follows:-
In a nutshell: it seems that between 1938 and 1974 Wheatstone & Co.
manufactured concertinas in two parallel series of serial numbers;
Englishes and Duets were given numbers #3XXXX, and Anglos were given
numbers #5XXXX. During these 37 years Wheatstone manufactured about
2,129 Englishes and Duets, with serial numbers from about #34955
through #37083, and some 9,498 Anglos, with serial numbers from
#50001 through #59498. Yet, for unknown reasons, this vast population
of late Wheatstone Anglos with #50000+ numbers are not seen nearly as
often as one would expect.
If you have access to the Internet, you can read the full article at:-
http://www.harbour.demoon.co.uk/tina.faq/conc-ap1a.htm
Dating Lachenal concertinas is unfortunately very hit and miss. I have
been told that when Wheatstone took Lachenal over they burnt all their
records - an act of real vandalism when seen from a modern perspective.
However, an attempt has been made to derive formulae (based on known
production figures over the life of Lachenal & Co) giving the year of
manufacture as follows:-
For the English system: (serial number divided by 769) + 1850
For the Anglo system: (serial number divided by 4176) + 1850
For the Duet system: (serial number divided by 111 ) + 1873
These formulae were devised by Geoff Wooff and originally published by
the Concertina Magazine (an Australian publication which in its time
produced some excellent material) in their Spring 1983 edition. Nowadays
I consider these formulae to be flawed to the point of unusability, but
see Wes Williams' article for greater accuracy.
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