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Author Topic: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings  (Read 9217 times)

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triskel

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #20 on: March 29, 2018, 12:12:48 AM »

I seem to remember early streamlining in Excelsiors (NY) from 1936, but possibly not as rounded as your Dallape example.

... I'd obviously be very interested to see pictures of any Excelsiors from that time, but various firms did start to make somewhat more rounded "semi-streamlined" instruments in the late '30s.

Doh! You wouldn't think I was actually watching one of those Excelsiors on eBay at the time: EXCELSIOR AM MADE 1936 ACCORDION just Like The One Played By Charles Magnante.


Only I'd forgotten it was an Excelsior...  :|bl

It certainly has lots of Art Deco elements in its decoration, and the body corners are very rounded but, apart from not having grille coupler switches, it doesn't have the compound curves of streamlining either.

triskel

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #21 on: March 29, 2018, 12:21:17 AM »

I think this 1940 piece of publicity from Fornasari in Milan well-illustrates the way things were going, with a good selection of out-and-out streamlined instruments, and others that look more old-fashioned but trying to appear trendy, and one that already looks kinda' "retro":

triskel

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #22 on: March 30, 2018, 08:10:55 AM »

The earliest "fully-streamlined" Hohner that I know of is the "Shand Special" that Venanzio Morino built specially for Jimmy Shand in 1939, and got delivered just before the start of World War 2:


Mind you, Morino was no slouch when it came to the new style, changing his from the old-style model on the right (notice his former "trademark" horns on the ends of the keyboard, like on Theo's Club model) to the more "modern" and streamlined instrument, with its flowing lines, on the left in this catalogue from the second half of 1937 (below):

Kimric Smythe

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #23 on: May 22, 2018, 07:39:51 AM »

I have a Scandal somewhere in my collection of 200+ old accordion that is pretty much the definition of art deco streamlining. It is pretty insane to the point of bizarre. I will try to find it and take a picture.
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David J

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #24 on: June 15, 2018, 02:54:41 PM »

My Hohner Tango I of, I think, 1938 vintage has got definite Art Deco/streamline features.
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triskel

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #25 on: June 26, 2019, 07:10:39 PM »

I said I'd drop in occasionally to tie up a loose end or two, and a button accordion I bought on eBay this week does just that, as well as providing me with a Scandalli box that should prove to be a very good and useful instrument.


It's a Scandalli "Beco" Club Model, 23+7, 3-voice with a sliding coupler behind the keyboard - and it's no bigger than a 3-voice Paolo Soprani despite all those extra buttons!

It displays marked similarities to the Scandalli "Symphony" piano accordion in the October 1937 announcement that I provided previously, and it must be one of the very first streamlined button boxes...



John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #26 on: June 26, 2019, 07:29:36 PM »

Like that coupler arrangement a lot.

SJ
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Jake Middleton (brinwins)

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #27 on: July 17, 2019, 04:46:57 PM »

what I love is how delape actually did those curved modernist edges. Its probably been posted here before but check out this video of the factory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xna2j0jsO1k&t=4s

watch from 11:20,  you think, ah hes going to use some sort of clever router jig to do all those shapes .. no its a chisel, then a rasp then some sand paper, oh ok cool.

Kimric Smythe

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Re: "Streamlined" accordions and their 1937 beginnings
« Reply #28 on: August 26, 2019, 07:20:22 PM »

I found my streamlined Scandalli. It says scandalli on the back of the keyboard. This is the most stylized instrument I have seen.
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