Melodeon.net Forums
Discussions => General Discussion => Topic started by: Peadar on September 30, 2019, 07:33:21 PM
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A While back Winston commented on another thread (can't find itotherwise I would have followed it) that unbranded but new looking German Pattern 1rows appear regulrly on ebay and he wondered if there was a factory somewhere in China churning them out.....Perhaps not now but "repro" furniture and luxury items has been something of a phenomena in recent decades. And here is evidence, currently offered on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Finest-handmade-accordion-steel-reeds-made-in-Germany/163884463325?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3D51c4d54eed794e8d8b458b5b74a18806%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D123919810006%26itm%3D163884463325%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2045573&_trksid=p2045573.c100667.m2042
The carton is the really interesting bit: "The Worlds Finest Reproducers"'The British Rola Company, Minerva Road, Park Royal, London.
Priced at 57/- . Which puts it pre 1971. For the record in 1968 (before the period of double digit inflation in the early 1970's) my pocket money was 2/6 (though I probably got as much again in the weekly allowance of sweets that my Grandad bought every Thursday). I was very well off compared with a lot of my classmates.
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If you look closely it says "This box contains one ROLA Class B Speaker Amplifier Unit".
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Miss Marple wouldn't have missed that, Peader! Hahaha!
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The carton is the really interesting bit...
According to Grace's Guide to British Industrial History the British Rola Company went into receivership in 1949 so the cardboard box is an antique. But how old is the melodeon? There is some corrosion on one of the bellows joiners. Is that a clue? The design looks very like a box that my wife bought for me from an antique shop, although mine isn't pink.
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The Box is marked "Made in Germany".
I thought anything between 1945 and re-unificaton was either marked as made in W. Germany or made in GDR.
Or did Hohner and other accordion makers brand their instruments simply as made in Germany?
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The Box is marked "Made in Germany".
I thought anything between 1945 and re-unificaton was either marked as made in W. Germany or made in GDR.
Or did Hohner and other accordion makers brand their instruments simply as made in Germany?
If you read the posts above you will see that the box is a red herring.
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The Box is marked "Made in Germany".
I thought anything between 1945 and re-unificaton was either marked as made in W. Germany or made in GDR.
Or did Hohner and other accordion makers brand their instruments simply as made in Germany?
If you read the posts above you will see that the box is a red herring.
Not that box! The pink one with the stops and the bellows.
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Ah, sorry.
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I haven't come across a satisfactory conclusion to this question. I've come across quiet a number of similar accordeons which have "Made in Germany" on them somewhere, and really look as if they've only recently come out of the factory. Still boasting "Bill Metal Reeds" (not a typo!) or "Steel Bronze Reeds", but they seem to be of the cheapest possible manufacture. Plus they're awful to play.