Sometimes my brother likes to spend part of a day together out shopping for antiques. It's a fun day for us, and he always finds a few "investment" antiques to add to the fun. This one is one such "find". When found, the one side was disengaged from the bellows, so impossible to know if it could play when repaired (you see the line where the break was in our photos). But a bit of restoration back at home, and in fact the bellows work perfectly well and you can play this charming old thing. OR, as is my inclination, make it part of Holiday decorations this year. We've had a few old musical instruments through the years. I'm always drawn to them. Come to find out, so is Jim. So here you have it, a button or two missing, but none of the charm. Photos from all angles. I didn't touch up the area where the split was, wanting you to see it and know what was done where. You (or we) can certainly make that all but disappear with a bit of cosmetic black shoe polish once it is yours. Measurements noted on the photos.
Very good condition for age and type, as noted above, it needed a simple restoration where the bellows had been pulled from the one side, but it's sealed now and there are no other holes or issues with the bellows. It does play. I can see that there are a couple of the buttons missing, so perhaps a concert will be more for fun than for musical entertainment. It's just such a fun item. When our grandparents immigrated from Switzerland as small children with their parents, one of the things they thought important enough to pack and carry was a small concertina and a mandolin. Music carried the family through early years as Americans and linked them to the old country. I still have that one.
