The Concertina Museum Collection Ref:C-104.

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Item Type: Concertina

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Labels and Serial Numbers

End Frets

Fingering System

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Summary

Full Description: C Wheatstone No 31778. A fine and large Wheatstone 56-Key Tenor-treble "Æola" in its standard Octagonal form. Original square hide case, and with stamps indicating it was an exported model (it was acquired from an owner in the USA). This model is a high quality "English" system Æola, No 31778, made in Jan 1929. It has inset & chrome plated metal ends and the scalloped Wheatstone & Co labels and Number mounts. The blued-steel reeds are in long-scale round-ended brass reed-frames with two smaller sized steel screws securing the tongues. The full serial number is stamped upon the inner pan-faces, with a batch number 548 upon other internal parts.

Concertina Summary: C Wheatstone No 31778. A fine and large Wheatstone 56-Key Tenor-treble "Æola" in its standard Octagonal form. This model is a high quality "English" system Æola, No 31778, made in Jan 1929. It has inset & chrome plated metal ends and the scalloped Wheatstone & Co labels and Number mounts. The blued-steel reeds are in long-scale round-ended brass reed-frames with two smaller sized steel screws securing the tongues. The full serial number is stamped upon the inner pan-faces, with a batch number 548 upon other internal parts.

Owner or Collection: Concertina Museum, Belper

Maker: C Wheatstone

Maker Links: Concertina, Charles Wheatstone No 31778 http://www.concertina.com/wheatstone/index.htm

Wheatstone Ledgers Link: www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD02/PAGES/D2P0820S.HTM This instrument was made on 16th January 1929. It appears in the Dickinson Series of Ledgers that 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: A 1920s-style scalloped engraved inset metal plaque with the Wheatstone label, which is pinned to the chrome plated ends, "C Wheatstone & Co, Inventors, Patentees & Manfcts, Concertinas & Æolas. London"

Principal Serial Number: 31778. The LH end has the earlier 1920s-style scalloped engraved inset metal plaque with the Serial Number stamped into the area. Other parts only have the "Batch Number" of the instrument, in this case "548".

System Type: Wheatstone 56-Key "English" Tenor-treble "Æola" in its standard Octagonal form.

Source Catalogue No: The Concertina Museum Collection Ref:C-104.

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.