This is a Lachenal 57-Key Maccann Duet with steel reeds. It has been re-finished, and fitted with new bushings, bellows, straps, pads and valves, and tuned to concert pitch (A=440hz).

This is an incredibly interesting thing, as we believe that this is most likely the first Maccann-system duet concertina ever made. The serial number is 57473 which, when matched up with the date written inside the instrument, is a number which was used for anglos at the time. So it pre-dates Lachenal’s numbering system for duets, and the year ‘1883’ which is written on the reed-pan is a year prior to the patenting of the Maccann Duet system. The writing inside says ‘Lachnal and Co Maker- For the inventor J.H Maccann- London, 1883, Plymouth’. The misspelling of Lachenal suggests that this was perhaps written by Maccann himself, as a Lachenal employee was unlikely to have spelt their own company’s name wrong. Another thing that leads us to thinking that this was a prototype concertina is the fact that two notes were in the wrong place, and those reeds could not physically have been swapped around after manufacture due to the reed sizes. If we were to guess, somebody at Lachenal probably made a mistake when constructing the concertina due to the fact that they’d never made anything like it before.

As a playing instrument, it’s a decent concertina. It isn’t lightning fast, but it does play and it has a balanced tone- not too harsh, not too mellow. This isn’t the best Maccann you’ll ever find, but it’s in absolutely beautiful condition, and we believe that it’s most likely the be one of the most important concertinas made in shaping the landscape for the instrument that we see today- and it’s looking as new today as it would have been when it was received by Mr. Maccann.

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