English system concertina. Serial number 224. Oval paper label: 'BY HIS MAJESTY'S LETTERS PATENT/C. WHEATSTONE,/Inventor,/20, Conduit St, Regent St./LONDON.' Later price code inked twice on bellows: 'SL/-.' 5.81 inches flat amboyna wood veneered ends with simple frets and pine backing. The ends are flush-fit to bellows and pans, inset to a cradle within the action. 32 ivory buttons: 16 each side. White naturals stamped with note names, red Cs, black stained accidentals. Straps absent, but metal mounts for straps present, in addition to the simple straight brass finger rests. Strap screws absent. Four-fold green leather bellows with faintly embossed papers with a gold curliqued/arabesque pattern. Square-end brass reeds. Action with complex brass levers, pivots screwed to the action board, buttons held in slits at the end of each lever. Bone pallets, screwed to brass levers.
This is the first concertina to have a printed paper label, a hand-trimmed oval glued to pine backing beneath an oval frame in the right-hand fretwork. This instrument was probably bought by Alexander J. Ellis (1814-1890), inventor of the cents system for measuring musical pitch and author of the paper 'On the Musical Scales of Various Nations'. The following information is recorded regarding the purchase of this instrument in the ledgers of the Wheatstone & Co. concertina factory (http://www.horniman.info): 1 Nov 1838: AJ Ellis Esq (C104a, p.13)
