The Concertina Museum Collection Ref:C-103.


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Item Type: Concertina

Summary Labels and Serial Numbers End Frets Fingering System Straps and Holding Devices Fret Baffle Action Board Reeds and Reed Pans Bellows Case and Other

Summary

Full Description: C Wheatstone No 32456. An unusually small 8-key miniature English system concertina, made during June1930. It has plain chrome plated 6-sided frets, 6-Fold bellows, and a later carved wooden case. This instrument was once the property of Jim Harvey, a leading light in the International Concertina Association in the 1950s and '60s: he also owned the giant 84-Key Duet (Item C.108 in the collection) C-108 and claimed that these two instruments were "The Smallest and the Largest Concertinas in the World!" Both instruments then were aquired by collector Ruth Askew, and were then bought by the Concertina Museum upon the death of Ruth during 2010.

Concertina Summary: C Wheatstone No 32456. An unusually small 8-key miniature English system concertina, made during June1930. It has plain chrome plated 6-sided frets, 6-Fold bellows, and a later carved wooden case.

Owner or Collection: Concertina Museum, Belper

Maker: C Wheatstone

Maker Links: Concertina, Charles Wheatstone No 32456 http://www.concertina.com/wheatstone/index.htm

Wheatstone Ledgers Link: http://www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD02/PAGES/D2P1090S.HTM This instrument was one of three similar, made on June 6th 1930. It appears in the Dickinson Series of Ledgers, with the entry "Miniature English 8 Keys" with Batch Number "2".These ledgers list all instruments from Serial Number 25001, made in May 1910, right up to the closure of the Wheatstone section of Boosey & Hawkes' Edgware factory in January 1974. For details of these Ledgers, visit www.horniman.info/.

Region of Manufacture: London

Main Maker's Label Wording: The "Wheatstone" name is stamped into the chrome-plated RH end.

Principal Serial Number: 32456, stamped directly into RH metal fretwork edging.

System Type: An 8-key "miniature" concertina, in "English" system layout.

Source Catalogue No: The Concertina Museum Collection Ref:C-103.

Maker Details

Wheatstone & Co. were founded in 1824, and survived until 1974. In 1975 the company was refounded by Steve Dickinson.

C. Wheatstone & Co was established in London, England by Charles Wheatstone (uncle to Sir Charles and William Dolman Wheatstone) at the beginning of the 19th Century. They moved to 20 Conduit Street, London, England in 1824. After the death of William in 1862, the firm was taken over by Edward Chidley, a distant relation. Edward Chidley died in 1899, and the firm was then controlled by his sons Edward and Percy. In 1905 the firm moved to 15 West Street.

After the death of the younger Edward Chidley in 1943, part of the firm was sold to Besson & Co., who were taken over by Boosey & Hawkes in 1948. In 1958 they moved to Duncan Terrace, Islington, North London. In 1961 the Duncan Terrace property was sold, and the remains of Wheatstone & Co. were moved to the Boosey & Hawkes factory in Edgware, Middlesex. The company ceased trading on the death of its last employee in 1974.

The remains of the company were purchased by Steve Dickinson in 1975.

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The Concertina Museum Collection

Created August 2009 by Neil Wayne
Last Modified 07 February 2012 by Neil Wayne, Chris Flint, Wes Williams

This page created Tuesday 14 February 2012.