Need help identifying 1950s accordian

[mikeoramy]

Hello! Wondering if anyone might be able to identify this vintage model. The warranty slip has a model number of 03A56 but no “brand” or manufacturer. Pics and some type of logo included that might be a clue. No identifying numbers or anything on the instrument or case that I could find. There is a record book that appears to be a register of payments that date back to 1955. Thanks for any info. I know next to nothing about these.

 

[Dingo40]

Hello! Wondering if anyone might be able to identify this vintage model.

It could be a "Lira" (Italian for "Lyre"), like the logo.
Lira was a make at the time.
A more upmarket "Lira" accordion for sale:

 

[John Doe]

I figure it to be a "house brand" from the music store that sold it. There are a lot of those out there- and it might be a perfectly nice instrument for all that it isn't adorned with a big name manufacturers name. There are Excelsior/Giulietti/Italo American "N Y Special" accordions out there which were pretty clearly all assembled by the same factory as special bulk orders -often for an Accordion School- whatever the name might say.

When dealing in the student line models the name on the grille (no name in this case) is not at all neccesarily the maker of the instrument. Quite possibly one of the 367 "Younamehim Soprani" clan shops. Made in the 50's- seventies in all probability- way later than the "Specials".

I respectfully disagree with the estimable Dingo40 on the made by Lira assessment. The distinctive Lira switching mechanism (Centromatic) has been around a long time, they were usually "Lira by International" or just "International" in some cases (of course sometimes just Lira), and though I've sort of spent a lot of time looking at Lira models and there are a very few without the Centromatic I've never seen a Lyre design of that style on any Lira.

The Lyre is an image employed by a cornucopia of instrument manufacturers of all types.

The instrument you have is a two reed right hand, four (possibly five) reed left hand instrument and at some point someone needs to pop the back panel off and fix the B. Most likely the shaft for the b button has jumped over the pin it's supposed to push down on causing all the left hand B's to descend into the case. This would be a very nimor fix assuming that's the case- probably caused by a sharp bump at some point.

Good luck-
Henry

 

[Mr Mark]

Wow. $2800 for that model in 1957?

Does the lifetime warranty cover wax?

In olden times, you used to get FREE correspondence counsel from the Service Department. Neat.


Sorry not much help (but the history in that case was interesting!) but unless there are golden reeds in there probably not of much value now. I would concur with the Lira assessment - but it appears I wouldn't know what I was talking about .

 

[Ventura]

There * ARE NOT * Excelsior/Giulietti/Italo American accordions out there which were pretty clearly all made by the same factory

no way no how nope not in your lifetime

no-one but Excelsior has ever made an Excelsior, accordiana, or
excelsiola accordion, period

Gulietti had very few sources for bare-bones bodies or finished
to order models, and they do not share any commonalities with
Italio-American, who were not New York based or centric in their
history and development. many Italio models sported very different
ideas and engineering which reflected their distance from the
influences of Italy and New York.. Italio was one of the oldest
and earliest USA companies

finally, the accordion in question is post WW2,
which is long past the era of "New York Special" design accordions,
period,
and it was obviously made in Italy

sheesh

you started out fine
"...figure it to be a "house brand" from the music store that sold it. There are a lot of those out there- and it might be a perfectly nice instrument for all that it isn't adorned with a big name..."

why would you post up so much disinformation after that for future reasearchers
to trip over ?

very dissapointing

 

[Ventura]

Wow. $2800 for that model in 1957?

Does the lifetime warranty cover wax?

In olden times, you used to get FREE correspondence counsel from the Service Department. Neat.


Sorry not much help (but the history in that case was interesting!) but unless there are golden reeds in there probably not of much value now. I would concur with the Lira assessment - but it appears I wouldn't know what I was talking about .

yeah that poor sucker was taken for a ride..

Russi music co. likely paid less that $200 for that box wholesale

 

[John Doe]

THE BELOW ASSESSMENT ON MY PART IS BASED ON THE OBSERVATIONS OUTINED BELOW. I WASN'T BORN UNTIL A GOOD DOZEN YEARS AFTER THEY WERE MADE AND THE PRACTICES OF THE PRETTY WELL INTERWOVEN ACCORDION MANUFACTURE INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE FIRST THIRD OF THE LAST CENTURY MAY WELL HAVE DICTATED MANY EXTERNAL SIMILARITIES FOR SAME MARKET MODELS WITH SOME COMMON SOURCING FOR PARTS EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL. I COULD EASILY BE WRONG THOUGH IN THIS CASE IT'D SUPRISE ME.

I'VE BEEN SURPRISED BEFORE.

no-one but Excelsior has ever made an Excelsior, accordiana, or
excelsiola accordion, period

no way no how nope not in your lifetime

no-one but Excelsior has ever made an Excelsior, accordiana, or
excelsiola accordion, period

Sorry- but I believe you to be in error on this. I have owned all three and they were, side by side, identical inside the instrument. The grilles were identical but for the names, The switch setup to include interior screw brackets was identical. The reedblock wood, finish and shaping was identical. The non marked reed plates were dimensionally identical. The bass section woodwork and mechanisms were identical. I agree with your dating- and at the time of the instrument in the OPs question the models in question were no longer made and had not been for decades. They were clearly branded with those big marques at the time in the same way that an SUV might be an Eddie Bauer model. I was merely citing intrument stencilling examples.


(Really- no offense here and you're right-some will read into the situation- but the darned things were just flat out the same models with different names slapped into the grille design, Hands on certainty. Excelsior did make everything in house by the thirties- but was that true during the time and for the market these were aimed at?

 

[Pipemajor]

Perhaps the names were added as in the Chinese accordion and Pakistani bagpipe tradition.
You can have any name you want on the instrument.
I would tend to agree with Ventura on this.

 

[John Doe]

yeah that poor sucker was taken for a ride..

Russi music co. likely paid less that $200 for that box wholesale

That huge markup is reflected today in the tragic demise of decent musical instrument stores. For all the huge markups (and that one is seemmingly particularly egregious) most of thes music store ownere/employess were not bloated capitalist zillionaires... The margins even with fair pricing are pretty thin once you account for the substantial overhead.

Shoppers browsing the in store stock- acquiring and holding that stock being a money hog, querying the instore knowledgeable sales force, all activities costing substantial money for the store... and then buying the instrument at a discount from some third party with a warehouse for an operation and a good shippiing department.

The same instrument for thousands less- but no customer support whatsoever. And the original shop goes under leaving well leaving what we now have in most places.

A not so slow motion tragedy.

 

[John Doe]

I would tend to agree with Ventura on this.

I pretty much stick with the specifics on the instruments I personally examined and handled but figure he is on the money in the larger picture. The post will be read into and cited -perhaps not cited directly but in the "I read somwhere" sense- and potentially grow a bumper crop of accordion information buckthorn.

Similar to the more modern (as in 1980ish onward) branding you mention- done with or without permission. Given the era the instruments I cited were produced (20's -early to mid 30's) I figure that it was a marketing ploy (with permission) to get name recognition for the famous brands inculcated in new players- the school is happy with ornate (probably a third of thd instruments weight in rhinestones...) accordions for their students, the local dealer gets a big cut (as does the school ihn all likelihood), and for those students who stick with it they are inclined to spring for the real deal from the big name on their beloved first real instrument. "Win win win" sort of.

I had an "Anderson System" fancy dan model (a school accordion) with Dallape on the grill- but there was enough difference int the construction (details, not neccesarily quality) that I didn't include it in the OP as an example.

 

[nagant27]

Giulietti, excelsior specials, italos definitely were not the same at any time. Totally different.
Maybe you could post sone pix?

 

[John Doe]

Giulietti, excelsior specials, italos definitely were not the same at any time. Totally different.
Maybe you could post sone pix?

I no longer have the three I referenced but they were similar to these three example of the genre currently on eBay (not at all reccomending them for purchase except perhaps as a stroll down memory lane- I retained an Italo American "Max Special" of similar design just because. These three are all in the "God alone knows what condition the interior is in category")( Tossed in a Galanti that popped up as it seems to be from the same mold)

I agree absolutely about the G, E, I models - with the exception of the "NY Special" series which really appear to be cookie cutter instruments. (not shoddy instruments , but made to a standard in design which belies notions of different manufacturers).

The three pictured are very close cosmetically- the ones I had on the bench were much closer and internally closer still; as in the same. None of the other models from any of these manufacturers were anywheres near as similar as these. The best counter argument I can imagine would be along the lines of "These were the school standards for appearance- sort of a nationwide school uniform standard. but still from different sources."

Perhaps for some- but yeehaw- the three I had were just too alike and too different from other models from the lines for that to really stick as I see it.

Time for me to take a double dose of blood pressure medicine... There's probably no closure on this issue to be had.

Best wishes- H

 

[Ventura]

that's actually the first pre-war giulietti i have ever seen.. i didn't
think he was actually in business before WW2.. he would have
barely been a teenager back then ?

that Galanti was made in Mondaino Italy, in the family factory, and sold in their
own family owned and operated store in New York, and yes looked like
other New York Accordions because they had to break into the market..
later they advanced their own designs and innovations and enginering,
and after WW2 changed their marketing approach to being a wholesaler
and private label supplier (Bell sourced some models from them) and they
continued as a private label supplier for some years after they stopped selling
their own Galanti brand accordions.

they still own the original factory

 

[Dingo40]

Wow. $2800 for that model in 1957?

My foster father paid £A80-00 for a 2voiced , 17 inch keyboard, 41/120 two treble no bass couplers, Settimio Soprani PA in 1949.
£80 was 10 weeks worth of gross wages for a master carpenter in the building industry at that time.
How much would that be today?

 

[SteveBox]

Wow. $2800 for that model in 1957?

I know nothing about the history of these accordions, but I was curious about that price. According to an inflation calculator, $2800 in 1957 is equivalent to about $31K today, enough for four of the new Korg digital accordions. The average man made about $4700 a year back then. I would say only an idiot would have paid half a year's wages for that accordion, as surely they would have found better prices elsewhere. So maybe the ledger was for something else. A car loan, perhaps.

I am also curious about that warranty. "WE FULLY GUARANTEE THIS INSTRUMENT FOR IT'S LIFETIME" So the warranty is for the accordion's lifetime. What is an accordion's lifetime?

 

[John Doe]

that Galanti was made in Mondaino Italy, in the family factory, and sold in their
own family owned and operated store in New York,

they still own the original factory.

Nice instruments back in the day. I still play a LMMM Super Aristocrat probably from the twenties or mid thirties- hardly a world class professional model but nonetheless light, nice sounding, and with zippy roll-up spring loaded metal mesh bellows brackets.

 

[Ventura]

yes, now i recall we chatted about those cool roll ups long ago
and other examples of their creativity..

certainly one of the very few old Italian Music companies still
successful to this day, though in the Institutional Organ market,
not accordions, and still in the Family

hey their little MIDI drawbars in a box was one of the earliest and
sounded pretty good too.. very reliable..

Ahlborn-Galanti Organs, Company History

 

[Mr Mark]

I know nothing about the history of these accordions, but I was curious about that price. According to an inflation calculator, $2800 in 1957 is equivalent to about $31K today, enough for four of the new Korg digital accordions. The average man made about $4700 a year back then. I would say only an idiot would have paid half a year's wages for that accordion, as surely they would have found better prices elsewhere. So maybe the ledger was for something else. A car loan, perhaps.

I am also curious about that warranty. "WE FULLY GUARANTEE THIS INSTRUMENT FOR IT'S LIFETIME" So the warranty is for the accordion's lifetime. What is an accordion's lifetime?

Yea I had to calculate that and found the same 31k . Whatever the payments they were weekly by the look of it, price seems about right for a car - I wonder how many reeds or wax went into that car .

Isn't everything guaranteed for life these days?

 

[nagant27]

I think that early giulietti is Julio’s dad Luigi?

 

[Tom]

My foster father paid £A80-00 for a 2voiced , 17 inch keyboard, 41/120 two treble no bass couplers, Settimio Soprani PA in 1949.
£80 was 10 weeks worth of gross wages for a master carpenter in the building industry at that time.
How much would that be today?

$40/hr x 40 x 10 = $16,000. You could get a dam good cordeen! Or a nice used car, or 3 root canal/crowns. See “retired dentist.”