Please.!!! Help me identify my great grandfather’s accordion.

[Jp925]

Hello yall, I’m new here and trying to identify my great grandfathers accordion. I’m thinking it’s from the 50s and maybe older and definitely German made. He came here from Germany around that time. I have taken as far apart as I feel comfortable doing myself and the only marking I can see is a #26 on the inside. If anyone has information on what this may be that would be great. I have attached some photos of it as well as a black and white picture of him with it which is what makes me think it’s from the 50s or older. That’s about when color photos came out but they were expensive.

 

[Dingo40]

Hi JP, and welcome!
What you have here is not so much an accordion but a large variety of concertina called a Chemnitzer ( or, possibly, a Bandoneon - they are somewhat similar!).
The chemnizer is much favoured by "polka style " bands of Polish/ Polish-German ethnicity, the bandoneon by South Americans ( eg Argentinians for various South American genres eg, the Tango.
But they can also be played by others .
Here's a Chemnitzer in action :

Also, see here:

Chemnitzer concertina - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And here, a typical Chemnitzer group:

Demonstration of a Chemnitzer (for sale by Liberty Bellows)

They can be quite gregarious at times:

(Birds of a feather flock together?)
Much more available on YouTube

 

[Dingo40]

Another with Maureen Dwyer ("John the workman")

As you can see, the Chemnitzer is "diatonic ", which simply means that, when playing, each button gives one note when you push the bellows inwards and a different note when you pull the bellows outwards.

 

[Ikesaccordions]

Some of the "bandonions" may be quite valuable.

 

[Ffingers]

Some of the "bandonions" may be quite valuable.

...especially in musical terms as well as in giving pleasure to both player and audience.

Monetary concerns denegrate real "value".

 

[Dingo40]

There's a lot more information on the concertina forum .
See here:

Concertina.net Discussion Forums

www.concertina.net

 

[Caps]

Hello yall, I’m new here and trying to identify my great grandfathers accordion. I’m thinking it’s from the 50s and maybe older and definitely German made. He came here from Germany around that time. I have taken as far apart as I feel comfortable doing myself and the only marking I can see is a #26 on the inside. If anyone has information on what this may be that would be great. I have attached some photos of it as well as a black and white picture of him with it which is what makes me think it’s from the 50s or older. That’s about when color photos came out but they were expensive.

I don't know anything about that kind of box, but it is real pretty!!