NC:4: Physical non-print items
The great popularity, compact nature, ease of playing, and eventual cheapness of the many variants of the concertina led to its major social mobility throughout the class structure of British society during the 19th and early 20th century. Concomitant with this spread of popularity was the use (some say abuse) of the instrument as an iconic image in advertising, packaging, comic publications, ceramics, toys, and later, in cartoons, badges and clothing. The Collection has a major archive of items in which the concertina is used in this iconic manner, including toys, biscuit tins, cosmetic bottles, beer-steins, embroidery and Disney badges. The final section includes a range of Trophies concerned with concertina-playing, notable the surviving Trophies of the International Concertina Association, and a rare mid-Victorian Cup for concertina-playing.
NC:4: Physical non-Print Items - Summary (Index)
NC:4:1: Carvings featuring concertinas [Browse] [Index]
There are countless examples around the world of small figurines, carvings, toys and trinkets that use (or more correctly abuse) the concertina as a feature to add 'cuteness' to such objects. The Collection includes but a few examples: the leading collection of such items is that of Henrik Müller of Sweden, whose amazing collection may be viewed by arrangement with him at henrik.muller@telia.com. The Concertina Museum recently acquired from the family of the famed collector Ruth Askew her huge collection of many hundreds of concertina- and melodeon-related carvings, toys, models and other trinkets. Images will be added to the Museum database as soon as possible.
NC:4:4: Fluid Containers [Index] [Browse]
NC:4:5: Biscuit Tins [Index] [Browse]
Due to its compact shape, capacity for music, and widespread popularity throughout the 'classes', the use of the concertina for toys, figurines, in 'cute and comic' images and in posed photographs has continued throughout the last hundred years. One specialist use of the concertina's iconic form has been in several varieties of biscuit tin. The popular Jacobs Biscuit Tin includes four pairs of reeds fixed to an inner reed-plate within the right hand end, that sound a chord when the end of the tin is slid off (presumably to alert Mama of any impending biscuit theft), and was fitted with thumb-straps to each end. The "Gray, Dunn & Co's Biscuits, Glasgow" Biscuit tin, unlike the Jacobs tin, has neither straps nor reeds, but has 10 +1 raised 'bumps' on each end, in the Anglo concertina layout, and has an images of a hand-strap to each end, with the Gray, Dunn & Co name. Information on the Jacobs biscuit tin is here.
NC:4:6: Badges [Index] [Browse]
NC:4:7:1 and NC:4:7:2 - Trophies - [Browse]
This section includes a range of Trophies concerned with concertina-playing, notably the surviving Trophies of the International Concertina Association, and a rare mid-Victorian Cup for concertina-playing awarded at Mr. C. Roylance's English Concertina Contest. The nine surviving ICA trophies were acquired from the committee of the ICA in 2009, for conservation and research. As the old archives of the ICA Newsletter are fully studied, more details will be added to these entries, detailing the biographies of the many famed players who competed for and won these awards at the ICA Festivals that were held every year or so from 1955 onwards. There is a link here to a Table of all the trophies, with the dates of all the Festivals held to compete for them, and details of all winners as engraved upon the trophies. Two non-ICA Trophies, the Roylance Cup and a German Konzertina-Club award are here.
NC:4:8: Embroidery [Index] [Browse]
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Created August 2009 by Neil Wayne
Modified February 2012 by Wes Williams
This page created Monday 20 February 2012.