Who are/were Metzler?
Hendrik Ball
I have an old English concertina (handed down in family) and I am trying to find out something about the company that made it,
how old it is, etc. By the way - I don't know much about concertinas!
The instrument looks a bit like pictures I have seen of a basic Wheatstone, but the
manufacturers name is Metzler & Co, Gt Marlborough Street, LONDON W. Brief description - six-sided, wooden ends, 48 keys,
green leather.
Any info about Metzler gratefully received.
Hendrik Ball
DoN. Nichols
In article <55skgg$2...@cherry.news.easynet.net>,
Hendrik Ball <hendri...@easynet.co.uk> wrote:
Let me attempt to continue the description:
Bone buttons. Each of the outer two rows is dyed black, most of the
inner two rows are natural, but with the note name engraved in the end, and
the 'C's are dyed red, with no engraving.
The bellows is probably four-fold (visible ridges when the
instrument is closed), or perhaps five-fold for a top-grade one. Each panel
of the bellows probably has a trapezoidal panel of what looks like an old
wallpaper pattern -- a fairly fine diamond pattern in a brass or green color
on white. (If the latter, it is probably verdigris from the brass.)
The reeds are probably brass reeds.
There is probably a flat wooden baffle visible through the fretwork
holes.
On the inside side of each reedpan, there is a circular piece of
paper marking which reeds should be in each slot.
Now -- if all this is true -- I believe that you have a "learner"
model concertina, acutally manufactured by Lachenal, but "badge engineered"
by putting some others name on it. Lachenal made a lot of these -- for both
music stores and teachers. It is probably pre 1900, and maybe quite a bit
pre. Certainly by 1920, things had gone to the preference for black ends
and bellows. I'm not quite sure when the transition was made.
For any more detail, we'll probably have to wait for input from
those who live in the UK with you, and can check up on the old records.
Neil Wayne would be the first one to check, but I'm not sure that he is
monitoring this group.
Gary Blair might have some old periodical in which advertisements
for the vendor appears, or even an article about the various makers/vendors.
Chris Timson might ask one of the many people that he knows, and
supply more information.
Good Luck,
DoN.
--
Email: <dnic...@d-and-d.com> | Donald Nichols (DoN.)
Voice Days: (703) 704-2280 | Eves: (703) 938-4564
My Concertina web page: | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Bob Tedrow
Hendrik Ball wrote:
>
> I have an old English concertina (handed down in family) and I am trying to find out something about the company that made it,
> how old it is, etc. By the way - I don't know much about concertinas!
> The instrument looks a bit like pictures I have seen of a basic Wheatstone, but the
> manufacturers name is Metzler & Co, Gt Marlborough Street, LONDON W. Brief description - six-sided, wooden ends, 48 keys,
> green leather.
>
> Any info about Metzler gratefully received.
>
Have you looked at the concertina spotters guide on my web page?
Bob Tedrow
Homewood Musical
Neil Wayne
>
> >I have an old English concertina (handed down in family) and I am trying to
> find out something about the company that made it,
> >how old it is, etc. By the way - I don't know much about concertinas!
> >The instrument looks a bit like pictures I have seen of a basic Wheatstone,
> but the
> >manufacturers name is Metzler & Co, Gt Marlborough Street, LONDON W. Brief
> description - six-sided, wooden ends, 48 keys,
> > green leather.
> >
> >Any info about Metzler gratefully received.
>
Yes folks, I do try to monitor this super newsgroup!! Yes, the poits
about Metzler were true - I like the phrase badge enginnering!! In my
Collection (now in the Horniman Museum London, I had a dozen or more
concertinas of a range of Londoon Makers, with Metzler's lable claiming
to be the manufacturer - and over a hundred other instruments with other
dealers' & wholesalers labels! - It was a real job to assess who was
REALLY amker in the old days, and I have some printed notes if anyone
is interested
Nice to contribute......
Neil Wayne
DoN. Nichols
In article <328A06...@freedmus.demon.co.uk>,
Neil Wayne <neil_...@freedmus.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>DoN. Nichols wrote:
>>
>> In article <55skgg$2...@cherry.news.easynet.net>,
>> Hendrik Ball <hendri...@easynet.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> >I have an old English concertina (handed down in family) and I am trying to
>> find out something about the company that made it,
>> >how old it is, etc. By the way - I don't know much about concertinas!
>> >The instrument looks a bit like pictures I have seen of a basic Wheatstone,
[ ... ]
>> Now -- if all this is true -- I believe that you have a "learner"
>> model concertina, acutally manufactured by Lachenal, but "badge engineered"
[ ... ]
>Yes folks, I do try to monitor this super newsgroup!!
Good! You had been quiet for quite a while, so I wasn't sure.
> Yes, the poits
>about Metzler were true - I like the phrase badge enginnering!! In my
To give credit where it is due -- that phrase I first heard (I
believe) from Chris Timson. (If not he, then from someone from the UK in
the alt.folklore.computers newsgroup, where the practice is discussed from
time to time (on other things than concertinas). I probably would not have
come up with exactly that phrase, since the terms "label" or "logo" would be
more likely to be used here than "badge", except among devotees of British
sports cars. :-)
>Collection (now in the Horniman Museum London, I had a dozen or more
>concertinas of a range of Londoon Makers, with Metzler's lable claiming
>to be the manufacturer - and over a hundred other instruments with other
>dealers' & wholesalers labels! - It was a real job to assess who was
>REALLY amker in the old days, and I have some printed notes if anyone
>is interested
I would very much like to see those. I've got a couple of old ones,
myself, which *look* like Lachenal, with the reed chart with a section cut
out of the rim where Lachenal's name would have been.
>Nice to contribute......
It is certainly nice to see *the* expert taking part here.
Thank you,
DoN.
Neil -- you'll see this twice -- I've sent you a CC, so you get it more
quickly.
Chris Timson
Hendrik Ball <hendri...@easynet.co.uk> writes
>The instrument looks a bit like pictures I have seen of a basic Wheatstone, but
>manufacturers name is Metzler & Co, Gt Marlborough Street, LONDON W. Brief
>description - six-sided, wooden ends, 48 keys,
> green leather.
I'll hazard a guess that it is actually a Lachenal, thugh it might be
one of a number of manufacturers. I have never heard of Metzler as a
manufacturer (if someone else has, please tell all!), but last century a
lot of music shops stuck their own names on concertinas. Nowadays we
call it badge engineering. My first anglo, for instance, was marked as
W. Raven & Co, Vauxhall Steps. It was however definitely a Lachenal as
it showed the Lachenal free-reed trademark embossed on the cross piece
(if you find a free-reed symbol embossed anywhere on the instrument,
that will be a firm diagnostic, but not finding it doesn't rule anything
out either). Have you looked inside? Some makers, Crabb for instance,
stamped their name and other details inside the instrument.
My guess that it is a Lachenal is based purely on the fact that Lachenal
did this a lot more than other firms, but they weren't the only ones.
You can find badge-engineered examples of most of their range, but so
far I have never seen a badge-engineered Edeophone.
Chris
--
Chris Timson Have concertinas, will travel
and Phone (UK) 01225 863762
Anne Gregson For our home pages and for the Concertina FAQ:
http://www.harbour.demon.co.uk/
Pete McClelland
>Any info about Metzler gratefully received.
time I'll look it up in Langwill's flute bible. As far as I know they
actually manufactured the woodwind themselves, but all their concertinas
I have come across were made for them by other manufacturers.
--
Pete McClelland
J.J.Farrell
In article <56e6q7$7...@windigo.d-and-d.com>,
DoN. Nichols <dnic...@d-and-d.com> wrote:
>In article <328A06...@freedmus.demon.co.uk>,
>Neil Wayne <neil_...@freedmus.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> Yes, the poits
>>about Metzler were true - I like the phrase badge enginnering!! In my
>
> To give credit where it is due -- that phrase I first heard (I
>believe) from Chris Timson. (If not he, then from someone from the UK in
>the alt.folklore.computers newsgroup, where the practice is discussed from
>time to time (on other things than concertinas). I probably would not have
>come up with exactly that phrase, since the terms "label" or "logo" would be
>more likely to be used here than "badge", except among devotees of British
>sports cars. :-)
Yes, 'badge engineering' is a standard term in the UK computer industry,
and I think I've come across it in other UK industries as well. I must
admit that I always thought it was an American term!
My opinions; I do not speak for my employer.