Paul Hardy's #17 Lachenal Concertina - 29781
Description of Concertina 29781
It is hexagonal with 48 bone keys. The ends are rosewood fretwork with a moulded edge. The bellows
are black, with a green and gold patterned transfer on each segment.
It is an English concertina, which means that it produces the same note when a key is pressed,
regardless of whether the bellows are going in or out. The other main type of concertina is the
Anglo, which gives different notes according to bellows direction, like a mouth organ does.
On arrival, the apertures in the fretwork which should have the serial number and the makers name were empty,and the original leather baffles behind the fretwork were missing.
However, inside is a label giving maker as Lachenal, and the number 29781 is stamped on both the reedpans and the action frame. This would date it to about 1890.
Initial state of this concertina
The instrument was bought via the Internet from Roger in Rotherham, for £200. It was in a very bad condition, with all the pads, bushings having
rotted, several springs gone, and thumbstraps broken. You can see the state of the action. The reeds are steel, and were
quite badly rusted. You can also see that the valve leathers were warped, because it had been stored in its box on end for many years.
There were several cracked hinges in the bellows with subsequent leaks - one had been 'repaired' with sellotape - now degraded!
There was an accompanying plastic bag with loose buttons, pinky rest, thumbstrap mount, and piece of veneer. Th only parts missing were the two thumbscrews to adjust the thumbstraps.
Restoration of this concertina
I stripped it down and bought pads, valves and thumbstraps from Mark at Concertina-Spares.co.uk.
I re-french-polished the ends, replaced all the pads, repaired the internal hinges to the bellows, and re-assembled.
Next step is to replace the valves, and then to try and rescue the reeds from rust and retune them.
lachenal_29781_fettled1
Do you know anything more about this concertina ?
Use paul at paulhardy dot net to send me an email message if you know anything about this instrument.
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