These Lachenal & Co. price lists have been collected by Chris Algar of Barleycorn Concertinas over the last twenty-five years. They have mostly been found in concertina cases with few hints to date them. The earlier advertisements were supplied by Stephen Chambers.

The approximate dates ascribed to the price lists here are based on internal evidence, as follows:

1. Address:In the earliest years, Lachenal was as "8, Little James Street, Bedford Row". By the Post Office London Directory of 1867 they had moved to "4, Little James Street, Gray's Inn Road" and a couple of decades later were occupying "4 & 6, Little James Street, Gray's Inn Road".
2. Postcode: The basic postcode areas (e.g., "W.C.") from the late nineteenth century were augmented with numbers (e.g., "W.C.1") added in 1917.
3. Telegraph Address: after they appear, all are "Lachenal, London".
4. Telephone Office: no telephone listed until after the postcodes change, then the prefix "Museum" is used until it is replaced by "Holborn".
5. Awards: most lists carry dated award medals, but the latest is 1900.
6. Printers' Dates: none have been found.
7. Trade Mark Registration: Lachenal's trademark, a reedshoe with rounded tip having two screws securing a reed, was applied for on 31 August 1878 and the registration was published as No. 15,222 on 8 January 1879. This device was usually stamped into the right palm-rails of Duet and Anglo instruments, marking them as of English design with individual reeds for each note (as opposed to German instruments with multiple reeds riveted to a single plate). The rounded tip of the reedshoe was the innovation which permitted rotating blades to be used to sculpt the dove-tail slots for reedshoes, an element of Lachenal's engineering for economical volume production.
8. Registered Design Registration: Registered Design No. 129662-3 for the Edeophone (with twelve sides) was issued to Lachenal 26 July 1889, so the Edeophone instruments should be later.
9. Model Names: we can see "the People's Concertina", then the series "Paragon", "Inimitable", "Excelsior" and "Nompariel", then the "Patent Duet" and "New Model English" instruments, then the Edeophone and "New Model Duet", then "New Model Anglo".
10. Prices: surprisingly, the variations in prices do not seem to be of much help in dating.

Robert Gaskins, Chris Algar, Randall Merris, and Wes Williams joined in the project to assign dates to the price lists. Additional documents were contributed by Stephen Chambers, who has independently done the most extensive work on the history of Lachenal.

Contents

• Lachenal Concertina Pricelists
• Lachenal English and Duet Pricelist 1859
• Lachenal English and Duet Pricelist 1860
• Lachenal English and Duet Pricelist 1861
• Lachenal English and Duet Pricelist 1862
• Lachenal English Pricelist 1862
• Lachenal English and Anglo Pricelist 1863
• Lachenal English and Anglo Pricelist 1864
• Lachenal English and Anglo Pricelist 1865
• Lachenal English and Duet Pricelist c. 1890
• Henshaw & Loebell Lachenal Anglo Pricelist c. 1895
• Lachenal English and Duet Pricelist c. 1905
• Lachenal Pricelist c. 1920
• Lachenal Pricelist c. 1930

• See Also
  More Concertina Pricelists

Links to related documents