Single action bass concertina. Serial number 24697; internal batch number 78. No label. 7.81 x 9.75 inches stretched hexagon, ebony ends, simple frets, bevelled. Socket for a music holder. Forty three keys: 20 left-hand, 23 right-hand. Domed nickel, bushed. Black leather straps with nickel screws. Seven-fold black leather bellows, four valve-holes on each lower fold. Square and round-end steel reeds, the larger reeds screwed onto double layered pan fixed under the action board.
This English system bass concertina was manufactured in London by Wheatstone & Co. in 1909. Popular as both a solo and an ensemble instrument, the concertina was built in a range of sizes for use in concertina bands – most common were treble register instruments but bass, baritone and piccolo versions were also available. A bass instrument such as this one is pitched two octaves below the treble version. Concertina bands regularly played in competitions, especially in the North of England, from the 1860s until the Second World War.
