Excelsior Model New York

[Pbraido]

Left to me from my uncles estate. He was an accordion and piano teacher and this accordion he went to New York to purchase via train ride from Chicago. It needs a good tuning but has a very sweet musette sound and a master which are switched from the palm bar and that’s it also 2 register switches on the bass side

 

[Ventura]

it would be a kindness to the future owners of this accordion if you would
put together a brief "history" including Bruno's full name, where he
lived/performed the years he was active perhaps even a picture from a
Newspaper article or old photo

the Value of the accordion depends upon how few Rhinestones have
popped off and been lost over the last 80 years or so

just kidding

it is a classic style of pre war accordion.. hope it finds a good home

 

[Pbraido]

it would be a kindness to the future owners of this accordion if you would
put together a brief "history" including Bruno's full name, where he
lived/performed the years he was active perhaps even a picture from a
Newspaper article or old photo

the Value of the accordion depends upon how few Rhinestones have
popped off and been lost over the last 80 years or so

just kidding

it is a classic style of pre war accordion.. hope it finds a good home

His full name was Bruno Antonello - lived in Sault Ste Marie Ontario Canada and taught accordion and piano for 35 years before his death in around 1965 His cousins lived in the Chicago area and thus the train ride from there to get the accordion He also had a Dallape but his son will not let go of it even thought he doesn’t play

 

[Ventura]

very cool !

that Dallape is nice too

 

[nagant27]

These older prewar excelsior special models are great instruments for the time. I like playing them , very light, and good for polka. Hard to believe they are like 90 years old.

 

[Valski]

In the second photo it looks like Bruno played in a country swing band judging by the shirts. That's really cool because it's a somewhat neglected genre of music!

 

[Tom]

Very cool thanks!!!! I love Sault St. Marie, and would consider moving there except for, you know..... I have actually played my accordion there, but not western swing, which I imagine was popular in the 50s and 60s. Thanks!!!!!

 

[John Doe]

Another specimen of the same genre- this one residing with yours truly. This one with the 140 bass and two RH shift bars. The type was promulgated under many names- Italo American, Excelsior, Dallape ("Anderson System")- you name it. The grills all appear to be made by one company, "Rhinestones are us...?" with curlicues and the lyres on either side of either one or two celluloid indicator windows and the usually cracked corners on the front side edges of the grilles are stencils.

Inside they are pretty much identical, seem to be pitched at a broad enthusiast amateur market, and all play just fine with a relatively bright tone.

On thing- at least you can be assured that you are playing the exact model used by Bruno. I am not exactly certain, but is seems unlikely that my Dick Contino (or Van Damme, or Frosini, or fill-in-the-big-name model is the same instrument used by the star...

So much for big name model accordions- at least I know that my 65 year old Mickey Mantle signature model vinyl baseball glove is the very thing used by the Mick!

 

[Pbraido]

These older prewar excelsior special models are great instruments for the time. I like playing them , very light, and good for polka. Hard to believe they are like 90 years old.

Yes it is very light and easy to play and excellent for polkas

 

[John Doe]

Should you wish to remove the name from the front the letters will (probably a bit reluctantly) pop off in whole or in pieces if you angle the edge of a piece of hardwood against the base of each letter (angle as in the piece of wood as close as possible to in the same plane as the top of the accordion with the edge of the wood piece pushing sideways against the letter base) and then tap the wood briskly with a mallet or hammer.

The letters will pop off leaving an outline where they were glued on. Someone somewhrer might be able to buff out or otherwise remove the outline- but surely not me and I have tried, tried again, and tried thrice- to no avail.

A piece of black self adhesive celluloid sheeting readily availble as a guitar pick plate replacement is easily trimmed to cover the affected area and becomes pretty much undetectable. The accordion pictured had similar letters removed and now has a cover sheet installed over the top so you can see how it comes out.

You might glance at the back of the RH portion of the instrument. Many of the NY Specials and their clones had what was probably a cutting edge manufacturing materials feature; a cover plate on the back made of vinyl/plastic rather than fiberboard. With time these seem to have become really brittle and suffer from cracking. You can address the issue neatly either with a replacement made by yourself - easier said than done...- or by removing the backpiece and then contact cementing a sheet of leatherette fabric over it. Trims up nicely, repairs the cracks quite well, and ought to last for another half century or so.

You could always just leave the name as a link to times gone by.

Good luck.

 

[Pbraido]

Should you wish to remove the name from the front the letters will (probably a bit reluctantly) pop off in whole or in pieces if you angle the edge of a piece of hardwood against the base of each letter (angle as in the piece of wood as close as possible to in the same plane as the top of the accordion with the edge of the wood piece pushing sideways against the letter base) and then tap the wood briskly with a mallet or hammer.

The letters will pop off leaving an outline where they were glued on. Someone somewhrer might be able to buff out or otherwise remove the outline- but surely not I and I have tied, tried again, and tried thrice- to no avail.

A piece of black self adhesive celluloid sheeting readily availble as a guitar pick plate replacement is easily trimmed to cover the affected area and becomes pretty much undetectable. The accordion pictured had similar letters removed and now has a cover sheet installed over the top so you can see how it comes out.

You might glance at the back of the RH portion of the instrument. Many of the NY Specials and their clones had what was probably a cutting edge manufacturing materials featurel a cover plate on the back made of vinyl/plastic rather than fiberboard. With time these seem to have become really brittle and suffer from cracking. You can address the issue neatly either with a replacement made by yourself - easier said than done...- or by removing the backpiece and then contact cementing a sheet of leatherette fabrig over it. Trims up nicely, repairs the cracks quite well, and ought to last for another half century or so.

You could always just leave the name as a link to times gone by.

Good luck.

I don’t think I will be removing the name as Bruno’s siblings request me to play it whenever there is a family get together and I don’t mind the name being there it brings back all my childhood memories from that time even though I wasn’t old enough to take lessons from him