Serial Number and Date Indexes
to the Wheatstone Ledgers

Directory

The indexes listed on this page contain serial numbers and dates from the Wheatstone Ledgers at the Horniman Museum, London. Each item listed below is a single index (such as to serial numbers or to dates) to a single ledger. Indexes lead to the Ledger identification and page number. This location information is a live link: click on it to see the colour photograph of the page from which the information was taken.

This is only a beginning to the project of transcibing and indexing the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers. The initial indexes were made by Wes Williams to provide data for his article The Serial Number Muddle in Early Wheatstone Ledgers.

ledgers-c104a-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C104a
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C104a, the "First Number Book", serial no. 0001 to serial no. 1500 (includes dates 03 May 1834 to 05 April 1849). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 15 December 2005
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ledgers-c104a-dates Date Index to Wheatstone Ledger C104a
by Wes Williams
Date index to Wheatstone Ledger C104a, the "First Number Book", serial no. 0001 to serial no. 1500 (includes dates 03 May 1834 to 05 April 1849). The record for each date entry gives its serial number (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 15 December 2005
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ledgers-c1046-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1046
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1046, a sales ledger, dates 30 April 1839 to 05 April 1848 (includes serial no. 16 to serial no. 1495). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 15 December 2005
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ledgers-c1047-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1047
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1047, a sales ledger, dates 01 January 1851 to 23 October 1852 (includes serial no. 57 to serial no. 5740). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 15 December 2005
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ledgers-c1048-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1048
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1048, a sales ledger, dates 23 October 1852 to 21 March 1854 (includes serial no. 56 to serial no. 7089). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 15 December 2005
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ledgers-c1049-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1049
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1049, a sales ledger, dates 21 March 1854 to 04 April 1856 (includes serial no. 52 to serial no. 8452). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-c1050-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1050
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1050, a sales ledger, dates 05 April 1856 to 04 November 1857 (includes serial no. 15 to serial no. 10416). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-c1051-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1051
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1051, a sales ledger, dates 04 November 1857 to 21 October 1859 (includes serial no. 350 to serial no. 11075). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-c1052-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1052
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1052, a sales ledger, dates 21 October 1859 to 30 April 1864 (includes serial no. 19 to serial no. 12152). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-c1053-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1053
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1053, a sales ledger, dates 30 April 1864 to 23 May 1870 (includes serial no. 16 to serial no. 18883). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-c1054-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledger C1054
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1054, a production ledger, dates March 1866 to December 1891 (includes serial no. 18061 to serial no. 21353). The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-1830s-to-1890s-serials Serial Number Index to Wheatstone Ledgers 1830s to 1890s
by Wes Williams
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledgers covering the late 1830s to early 1890s. Includes ledgers C1041, C1046, C1047, C1048, C1049, C1050, C1051, C1052, C1053, and C1054. The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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ledgers-serials-lookup Serial Number Lookup for Wheatstone Ledgers 1830s to 1890s
by Robert Gaskins and Wes Williams
A quick lookup for serial numbers in Wheatstone Ledgers covering the late 1830s to early 1890s; type in a single number and receive a report on all its occurrences in the ledgers. Includes ledgers C104a, C1046, C1047, C1048, C1049, C1050, C1051, C1052, C1053, and C1054. The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present) and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Posted 01 February 2006
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covers of all ledgers
Serial numbers and dates
transcribed from
Wheatstone & Co.
factory ledgers
at the Horniman Museum

Links to related documents

lachenal-sig-wheatstone-concertina-ledgers Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers
Directory
Historical business records of C. Wheatstone & Co. from the Horniman Museum in London. Earlier ledgers from the Wayne Archives contain company sales records from the late 1830s to the 1860s along with production records from the 1860s to the 1890s and some early records of wages and other payments. Later ledgers from the Dickinson Archives contain production records from 1910 to 1974. All surviving ledgers have been digitized (some 2,300 pages in total) and made available free on the web for private research. The same material is also available to buy on an inexpensive CD. Includes an introduction to the project by Margaret Birley, Keeper of Musical Instruments at the Horniman Museum, and an article by Robert Gaskins describing in detail how the ledgers were digitized.
Posted 15 June 2003; Updated 15 June 2005
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williams-serial-number-muddle Serial Number Muddle in Early Wheatstone Ledgers
by Wes Williams
A major contribution to the muddling of serial numbers in the early ledgers is that multiple ranges of serial numbers are in use at any one date, and this is further complicated by instrument exchanges and hires. The multiple ranges begin as a feature of sales before 1850, but after that the multiple range-lines dominate the structure of sales, with many simultaneous ranges extended over longer periods. Scatter-plots of serial numbers and dates transcribed from the Wheatstone Ledgers reveal the pattern. This is a preliminary version dealing only with the first four ledgers (to early 1854); the completed article will appear soon.
Posted 15 December 2005
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pricelists-wheatstone-english Wheatstone English Concertina Pricelists
collected by Chris Algar
Most of these pricelists were found in old concertina cases. From internal evidence it is possible to date the lists c. 1915 to c. 1965 (plus one very early pricelist dated 1848, from the collection of the Horniman Museum, and a list published as an advertisement in a trade directory in 1859). These lists contain information about Wheatstone model numbers and descriptions which are useful to interpret the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers. See also Duet pricelists from Wheatstone. See also Anglo pricelists from Wheatstone.
Posted 15 May 2003
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pricelists-wheatstone-anglo Wheatstone Anglo Concertina Pricelists
collected by Chris Algar
Most of these pricelists were found in old concertina cases. From internal evidence it is possible to date the lists c. 1910 to c. 1965. These lists contain information about Wheatstone model numbers and descriptions which are useful to interpret the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers. See also English pricelists from Wheatstone. See also Duet pricelists from Wheatstone.
Posted 15 February 2003
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pricelists-wheatstone-duet Wheatstone Duet Concertina Pricelists
collected by Chris Algar
Most of these pricelists were found in old concertina cases. From internal evidence it is possible to date the lists c. 1910 to c. 1965 (plus one very early pricelist for Double duets c. 1850). These lists contain information about Wheatstone model numbers and descriptions which are useful to interpret the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers. See also English pricelists from Wheatstone. See also Anglo pricelists from Wheatstone.
Posted 15 February 2003
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atlas-ladies Ladies in the Wheatstone Ledgers: the Gendered Concertina in Victorian England, 1835–1870
by Allan W. Atlas
This study looks at the 978 women for whom there are 1,769 transactions—about 12% of the total—recorded in nine extant Wheatstone & Co. sales ledgers that list the firm’s day-to-day sales from April 1835 to May 1870. It is in two parts: (1) an Introduction, which analyses the data presented in the Inventory from a demographic-sociological point of view and places Wheatstone’s commerce with women into the context of its business activity as a whole; and (2) the Inventory (with three appendices), which lists every transaction for each of the 978 women, identifies as many of them as possible, and offers a miscellany of comments about both the women and the transactions. Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle v. 39 (2006). 239 pages. Briefly, the roster of Wheatstone’s female customers reads like a list of Victorian England’s rich-and-famous: the Duchess of Wellington and 146 other members of the titled aristocracy (more than twice as many as their male counterparts), the fabulously wealthy philanthropist Angela Burdett Coutts, members of the landed gentry, and such mainstays of London’s musical life as the guitarist Madame R. Sidney Pratten, the organist Elizabeth Mounsey, and the contralto Helen Charlotte Dolby, as well as a large number of Professors of Concertina.
Posted 21 March 2007
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calculator Calculate Modern Values of Historic Concertina Prices
by Randall C. Merris and Robert Gaskins
“How much would that be in new money?” An interactive calculator to convert sterling values from any year 1830–1999 to the equivalent value in the year 2000. The calculation preserves the relation between the chosen value and “average earnings” for the two dates; this method makes it appropriate for converting wages and capital sums, and also for expensive discretionary products such as concertinas. The calculator deals with both “old money” (prior to 1971) and the later decimalized currency. It is especially useful for understanding historical documents such as old advertisements and pricelists, and the sales prices and wages recorded in the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers from the Horniman Museum.
Posted 01 January 2005
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horniman-site Horniman Museum
the Horniman Museum
The Horniman Museum in London is home to the largest collection of concertinas (more than 600 instruments) and much related archival research material. A photographic directory of concertinas in the collection is available on the site. The Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers at the Museum have been digitized and are online at a separate website.

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Posted 15 April 2003
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