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This instrument has mahogany ends which were the most common in 19th century concertinas.
The fretwork is not ornamental; it provides the holes from which the sound from the reeds is carried out of the instrument.
The inside is covered with thin cloth, to let sound out but- to keep insects, dirt, and worms out.
Even a small thread or ash from a cigarette could clog a reed and stop a music session until the cover was taken off and the obstruction removed. In the British Isles worm infestation was a problem.
 Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
Louis Lachenal, the father of concert virtuoso player Marie Lachenal above, originally worked for Wheatstone as a tool and die maker and manager, then, about 1850, decided to set up shop himself so starting a concertina production company which is as famous, among the concertina playing fraternity, as the Wheatstone, and its concertinas just as in demand. His line of concertinas was slightly lower end in construction. This is a 46 key Duet version of the English concertina for which you have to learn different fingering positions. The Duet was invented to try to simplify playing for some people. The high notes for the melody line were put on the right side, and played by the right hand, while the left hand would pound out the bass or complementary chords, on the opposite side, somewhat like in an accordion. This one features the Mccaan system of how the keys are positioned. This instrument is rarer to find than the standard English concertina.
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| Lachenal Mccaan Duet Concertina - 1909 | |
| Orig. concertina - Size - 18 cm Found - Milton, ON |
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Lachenal Mccaan Duet Concertina - #2596 - 1909 |
The paper label was common on 19th century concertinas and can often be lost or is too degraded to read.
Concertinas with labels giving the manufacturer's pedigree are more valuable than those without.
Buttons on the earliest concertinas were made of bone, some of ivory. Nickel plated keys - like on the Aeola - were more durable and could stand up to heavy usage better.
Though we played it vigorously for 34 years it never needed a repair. Now compare that to most marriages...
While in tone it is not as rich and throaty as a Wheatstone - or make aficionados slaver - it was available, and allowed us to play English concertina for decades which would never have been possible otherwise.
There are thousands of us who are grateful to Hohner for producing a rugged instrument at a far more affordable price than one would have had to pay for one of the classic models, new or old.
Left the left hand position of the 48 key treble. This instrument, like other 48 key English concertinas is light weight compared to the Aeola, and so can be waved about spiritedly on thumbs and pinky without the slightest strain.
Instead of fabric the insect guard is perforated foil.
The bellows is six fold, which for some slow tunes, is a tad limiting, as one gets to the end of the bellows draw on an especially sappy song, and it starts to tighten up. Which is why many avoid the four and five bellows models.
| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
You won't find this one listed as a favourite among the concertina aficionados but it holds a special place in our heart. And for a very good reason. When concertinas went out of favour, with the coming of accordions, television, record players, etc., no one was interested in making new ones. Then the 1960s folk boom resurrected the concertina. But quality instruments were not to be had, especially in Canada. We toured London UK shops in 1972 desperately looking for any kind of Wheatstone or Lachenal; none were to be found at any price. When we contacted Wheatstone they told us a new one would cost a fortune (1000 pounds - $5000) and there would be at least a two year wait... We gave up. To fill the growing demand Hohner stepped up to the plate with this fine 48 key treble which we purchased in 1973. |
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| Hohner C48 English Concertina - 1973 | |
| Orig. concertina - Size - 23 cm Found - Toronto, ON |
The buttons on this are plastic. The black button is an air release, so that you can deflate the bellows without having to press a reeded key.
Forcing the bellows closed when they are full of air could damage the interior flaps over the reeds, or even, in time, force a leak at a weakened place on a bellows fold.
We would never consider selling it; it has too many good times with good people associated with it over many decades...
But we finally have to give up playing it...
The unthinkable happened, after some 37 years...
We found an affordable Wheatstone Aeola built during Wheatstone's classic period...
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Hohner C48 English Concertina - 1973 |
| theCanadaSite.com |
| Copyright Goldi Productions Ltd. - 1996, 1999, 2005 |
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The Concertina in Canada
The English concertina is an English invention, patented in 1829 by Charles Wheatstone, an English inventor, who registered updated improvements in 1844. The instrument became wildly popular in early Victorian times (1837 -1860).
That is also the period in which a huge influx of people from the British Isles came to Canada, including retired Army officers like the husbands of famous Canadian writers Susanna Moodie and her sister Catharine Parr Traill.
Instruments of choice, in genteel families, were the various versions of pianos, but these were too bulky to bring to Canada. Which is why a flood of portable folk instruments were brought instead. The Scots brought the fiddle; the Irish the Anglo concertina; and the English the English concertina.
Actually Inuit girls in Arctic Canada, in the middle of the 19th century, were among the first Canadians to be seduced by the dulcet tones of the concertina, as they were being serenaded by love-struck whalers marooned for months in arctic waters. As a result, the concertina was long the instrument of choice among the nomadic Inuit people. The women found the guitar and fiddle just too cumbersome to pack about on their backs...
(Though, as Inuit people settled down, these instruments became more popular; the gramophone brought in the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, whose songs are still favourites among guitar players in the high arctic.)
No doubt many of these concertinas were brought over in immigrant trunks, played lovingly for decades, then with the change in fashions, put in the attic for decades, until auctions rooted them out into the light of day.
Both the pre-Confederation Rock Chidley (1850) and the Lachenal (1909) came from Canadian estate sales.
There are no famous Canadian historical concertina players we know of.
The only Canadians noted for their talents, in a closely related pursuit, are Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan left noted for their skill in spreading concertina wire to keep them a safe distance from the locals they are apparently there to help...
Rock Chidley's paper label, happily recessed from a 150 years of abuse, behind the fretwork. The address is Rock's home address, not the place where this concertina was made.
#702 is the earliest serial number we have ever heard of anywhere for a Rock Chidley. Manufacturing data is extremely hard to find for these concertinas. It could even be a late 1840s concertina...
The mahogany box was similar for all the manufacturers of concertinas.
This Rock Chidley is a 32 button model and shows the hard wear of long and rigorous playing sessions early in its life.
It would have been used at barn dances, log clearing parties, weddings and funerals, and was probably accompanied by fiddle and guitar, and perhaps a banjo on occasion.
The ends are of mahogany.
Like most concertinas it was designed as a hexagonal box with long flat sides to keep it from rolling off table tops when you set it down, especially when you're in a hurry.
The Wheatstone Aeola is octagonal which gives it a more artful look with shorter flat edges.
The top of the line Lachenal Edeophone had twelve sides making it very unstable because the sides were now extremely short. With the slightest knock it would roll down a hill and never stop...
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Rock Chidley English Concertina #702 - 1850 |
| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
This Pre-Confederation Rock Chidley is one of the very oldest concertinas in Canada, bearing an extremely low serial number dating to say, 1850. Rock Chidley was a nephew of Sir Charles Wheatstone and was making concertinas for his uncle's firm at least by the 1840s. He set up shop for himself in 1850. Rock Chidley closed shop about 1867. This concertina has a paper bellows with only four folds, making it somewhat harder to play sappy love songs with. But then, what with the far from idyllic life of pioneering in early 19th century Canada, no one was much in the mood for love songs anyway. Very few pioneers would have had any sympathy for the teenage moanings of say, Leonard Cohen... So this instrument was used to play fast tunes, we believe, to help people keep warm in winter. If only it could talk... |
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| Rock Chidley English Concertina - c 1850 | |
| Orig. concertina - Size - 17 cm Found - London, ON |
| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
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| Pitcher, Eskimo Girl Clara (Mikok) - 1893 | |
| Orig. stoneware - Size - 18 x 18 cm Found - Napanee, ON Prov - The Copeland Coll |
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| Clara, or Mikok, was a Labrador Inuit girl, whom legendary arctic explorer, and sometime North Pole discoverer, Dr. Frederick Cook took - along with a male child with their parents' permission - to promote his lecture tour in cities of the eastern seaboard of the United States in 1893-1894, to raise money for another expedition. He used to exhibit them as "wild Eskimos" to draw in the crowds. She would be typical of the girls the whalemen played their concertinas for, in the high arctic during this period of "early contact." | |
A fabulous concertina that, for some 34 years, has played at countless singsongs.
