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Instrument Section C-360 to C-360, Maker - Simpson

A good survey by Wes Williams of Simpson's various addresses and comments on the instruments is here: The Wes Williams archive states: 

"The Horniman has a few instruments by this maker, and also a 'Simpson and Weipper' instrument. This latter instrument must date to about 1870, as Simpson and Wieppert formed a short lived partnership about 1869-1872. A tutor, 'Easy Method of Learning the Concertina, by John Simpson, Teacher of the Flageolet' was published in 1855. His addresses were:

1826-30:260 Regent St.
ca. 1830-69: 266 Regent St.
1869-72:266 Regent St. (as Simpson and Weippert)
1874-75:14 Argyle St.
1876-79:32 Argyle St.

Simpson appears many times in the earliest Wheatstone records. It seems that he stopped buying from Wheatstone sometime between spring 1848 and January 1851, so it may be possible to narrow the date of instruments that contain Wheatstone or non Wheatstone features."

It is not clear whether Simpson DID have a period actually manufacturing instruments, or, as is often the case either continued to buy or "re-badge" instruments from Wheatstones', or commissioned some of the many minor and ex-Wheatstone makers active in London to create a Simpson-branded model for sale in his music emporia.

The fine listing of all known Concertina Tutors, as compiled by Randy Merris, is here, and lists as Item 67 - "Simpson, John. Easy Method for Learning the Concertina. London: Simpson & Co., c. 1855" It is in the British Library. Merris states that "Simpson - a flute and flageolet maker - also made concertinas and edited Simpson's Concertina Journal in the 1850s and 1860s".

We list below a few salient features of the Simpson-made - or merely labelled! - Instruments in The Collection.

C.360   Simpson No 6:-  A 48-Key English concertina, with delicate hand-cut fretwork, round-end brass reeds. Oval paper "266 Regent Street" Simpson label.

C.363   Simpson, un-numbered:- A fancy brass/nickel inlaid, glass-buttoned 56-Key extended-treble English concertina: fancy hand-cut fretwork, engraved nickel thumb-screws, the glass keys inserting into sub-fret bone fittings.            Three different pallet sizes to each end.             

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The Concertina Museum Collection

Created December 2010 by Neil Wayne
Modified March 2011 by Wes Williams
This page created Wednesday 30 March 2011.