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[Rog]

I have someone asking if one of these can be restored. I don't know much about them except it looks a lot like the kind of thing to be avoided, esp as on others I've seen you can't get the keyboard apart, and the reeds are all on one plate etc. But maybe this one is different... Any help would be appreciated.
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/sheffield-auction-gallery/catalogue-id-srsh10054/lot-66e89db7-cf2d-44cc-bced-a44c00e55350

[Malcolm Clapp]

Always an adventure and a lottery with this style of "accordeon", and usually doesn't end well.
Best avoided unless you have lots of spare time on your hands and you are up for a challenge....

My 10c worth....

[hallelujahal]

Agree with Malcolm, avoid like the plague...I speak from bitter experience :-)
AL

[911377brian]

In total agreement having spent much time and effort making a similar box a thing of beauty that played like a dog. However, As a result I can, with confidence repaper and retape bellows,search out and repair leaks, limit button action and bring casein buttons up like new......glass half full thing....

[Rog]

yep. Pretty much what I think too. But thought I'd better make sure it's not a priceless example of free reed history.

[triskel]

I don't know much about them except it looks a lot like the kind of thing to be avoided, esp as on others I've seen you can't get the keyboard apart, and the reeds are all on one plate etc. But maybe this one is different... Any help would be appreciated.
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/sheffield-auction-gallery/catalogue-id-srsh10054/lot-66e89db7-cf2d-44cc-bced-a44c00e55350

Oh these are different alright, VERY different!

They were made by Wilhelm Spaethe of Gera and sold by the large firm of John G. Murdoch & Co., who registered "THE PEERLESS" as a Trade Mark (number 37,884, applied for on 5th June 1884).

How many 10-key melodeons have you seen that have a vox-humana ("tremolodeon"), a bird-whistle, cock-crow and cuckoo incorporated in them, along with an internal bellows lock (operated by the stop-knob on the bass end), an all-metal action AND "screwed on leather" (nickel-silver) reeds on individual plates?

Here's a photo of mine, displaying those features:

Bellows lock and vox humana flaps


Wooden cuck-oo pipes (bottom), cock-crow (centre left) and bird whistle (centre right)




Vox humana flaps (other side)

P.S. "Accordeon" was the normal German spelling for the name of the instrument, whilst only British and Irish people called it a "Melodeon" (or even a "Melodion")...

[Rog]

Oh. Right. So they are worth keeping then (?).  The one I've been sent photos of has a couple of buttons missing from the keyboard. Do you know if the keyboard comes apart?

[triskel]

Oh. Right. So they are worth keeping then (?). 

That might depend on what you're looking for, but they were a very high quality melodeon in their day (more than a century ago), and always came in a wooden case (which would not have been the norm otherwise).

It might be worth considering putting steel reeds into one - if you wanted a stronger sound...

The one I've been sent photos of has a couple of buttons missing from the keyboard. Do you know if the keyboard comes apart?

Like it says on the bellows frames, they have Spaethe's Patent Lever Action that, like I've already said, is all-metal - that is to say, there is NO WOOD whatsoever in it. So yes, it does come apart, and is only attached to the wooden keyboard itself by three screws.

And I know what's going on with the buttons because it's a common problem with Spaethe melodeons (of which I have around a dozen, in different models) - in that the button is attached to the metal lever by a steel screw into the back of them, and those screws can go rusty, discolouring the buttons brown and, if it gets bad enough, eventually cracking them so that they break up.

[Rog]

Hi Triskel, thanks very much.
I have sent you an email and a PM.

[triskel]

One extra luxury with these, that I forgot to mention, is that another one (of a more basic model) that I have has a label that explains replacement reeds, if one went, could be got by return of post, ready tuned. To which end, all the reedplates in mine are numbered, so you could order the right one.