Any idea on the date?
I'd give it a miss to be honest. Possibly 1920s would be my guess, but would defer to anyone who has this in a catalog!
'Fraid not. :(
My catalog (c.1920) shows only Vienna-style models as being available in "burnt-wood" finish, and for the same prices as the plainer models. Whilst this would be a German-style model, so I guess they must have come along slightly later, but anything of Koch's own production, rather than a Hohner-Koch, should date from before the official takeover on 1st January 1929.
I have one like it, but in poor condition:
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/photo0152.jpg)
And a 2-row version:
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/P10100162.jpg)
I've always considered this hot plate impressed decoration to be the 'real' pokerwork - the industrial version of hot stylus decoration ...
Me too, and Koch seem to have been the innovators with it. This is from a c.1920 Koch U.S.A. catalog (it has a new July 1 1921 Dealers Price List inside it), describing the finish as "burnt-wood":
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/scan0003_2.jpg)
Whilst the earliest appearance of something resembling "pokerwork" in any of my old Hohner catalogues is in a May 1927 (if I'm reading the "527" printer's mark correctly, certainly after 1926 anyway) French one I have, in which they describe it as "pyrogravé" (the French for "pokerwork").
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/scan0009_4.jpg)
Only these models don't show any of the burnt wood - that part of the design has been filled with paint (red for 3-voice, green for 2-voice with coupled basses, and black for octave tuning on No. 3865).
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/scan0010_2.jpg)
... however, the Vienna gold style seems to be almost universally called pokerwork now, have wondered when this started and if was own to a misprint or similar in a distributors catalogue that kicked it off.
There has long been confusion about the terminology for the "pokerwork"/"goldbrand" finishes, even in Hohner's catalogues, and more recently they seem to have also forgotten the differences between "Wiener"/"Vienna" (2915/2815 and 1140/1040) and "Deutsche"/"German" (114) models themselves - and it's not in whether a box has gold style pokerwork decoration, which they now seem to think! ::)
The decoration on this one looks in good order, as far as can be seen anyway.
Yes, unfortunately the woodwork is warped on mine, and somebody has poorly revarnished it. :(
Edited to add scans from French catalogue
Any idea on the date?
My catalog (c.1920) shows only Vienna-style models as being available in "burnt-wood" finish, and for the same prices as the plainer models. Whilst this would be a German-style model, so I guess they must have come along slightly later, but anything of Koch's own production, rather than a Hohner-Koch, should date from before the official takeover on 1st January 1929.
Ok thanks , so between 1920 -29.
And maybe for a handful of years after January 1st 1929, The trouble is nobody knows exactly what happened at the time of the takeover, and Hohner continued to market a range of "Koch", and the cheaper Koch "Mira", instruments (as well as "Kalbe", "Gessner", and "Regal" brands) into the 1930s. In fact the Koch 3-stop in question is illustrated, and described, as No. 4202 in Hohner's mammoth "Catalogue No. 700" of c.1929-30 (bottom of page):
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/scan0016.jpg)
Whilst some instruments with Koch designs on them got sold with "Hohner" badging in those years. ???
But it was a big takeover, that didn't happen overnight, of the factory "next-door"...
I've now made and added scans from the French Hohner catalogue I mentioned:
... the earliest appearance of something resembling "pokerwork" in any of my old Hohner catalogues is in a May 1927 (if I'm reading the "527" printer's mark correctly, certainly after 1926 anyway) French one I have, in which they describe it as "pyrogravé" (the French for "pokerwork").
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/scan0009_4.jpg)
Only these models don't show any of the burnt wood - that part of the design has been filled with paint (red for 3-voice, green for 2-voice with coupled basses, and black for octave tuning on No. 3865).
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/scan0010_2.jpg)