Item Type: Tutor - Wheatstone's 1844 Patent
Summary
Full Description: A copy of the British Museum’s “Instructions for performing
on Wheatstone’s Patent Duett Concertina”, c1850, which is on-line
in full at
http://www.concertina.com/duett/#duett-wheatstone-tutor
There are four Wheatstone Duett concertinas in the
Collection: Items
C.094
,
C.095
,
C.096
and
C.097
.
Robert Gaskins’ notes from the concertina.com site
state – “Wheatstone's early “duett”
concertinas look very much like early Anglo-German instruments, but
with different internal construction and a true "duet"
arrangement where each button plays the same note on both push and pull. The
keyboard is identical to the central notes of the later Maccann Duet
Concertina, and anyone who can play a Maccann can pick up a
Wheatstone Duett and play immediately in the keys of C or
G.
The Wheatstone tutor for this instrument (reproduced in full
http://www.concertina.com/duett/#duett-wheatstone-tutor
here) was deposited at the British Museum on 28 July 1855, and was
probably published after 1850 (the previous large deposit of
Wheatstone publications).
In addition to the tutor, Wheatstone & Co. published twelve
books of music for the 24-key duett, all carefully noted in the keys of
C and G only (of necessity). The first six books were stamped at the
British Museum 28JY55, at the same time the tutor was
accessioned. Then the next four books were stamped 21DE59, with a
new title page as well listing more music for duett. The last two books
were stamped 16AP62.
The earliest known advertisement was placed in The Scotsman
(Edinburgh) on Wednesday, 20 December 1854, offering (along with
conventional English concertinas) "The Duet
Concertina" in mahogany and rosewood, together with its tutor (this
was seven months before the tutor was date-stamped at the British
Museum). Fifteen months later a longer advertisement by Wheatstone
was appearing in the Daily News (London), with the earliest of
these found so far in the issue for Thursday, 13 March, 1856, offering the
“novel” duett concertina for sale, along with the “tutor
and seven books of airs”.
Source Catalogue No: The Concertina Museum: 5.4.7-001
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