A Richard Blagrove Letter at the Royal Academy of Music

Allan W. Atlas

Among the holdings pertaining to the concertinist (and violist) Richard Blagrove (1826 – 1895) at the Museum of the Royal Academy of Music, there is an autograph letter dated 28 September 1863 from Blagrove to an unnamed female recipient. Housed in the Museum’s McCann Collection under the acquisition number 2004.1482, the letter (apparently the only known letter in Blagrove’s hand) provides insight into a number of aspects concerning Blagrove’s activities as a concertinist.

Figure 1 reproduces the letter in its entirety. 1

Fig. 1. Richard Blagrove, letter of 28 September 1863 to an unnamed recipient; Royal Academy of Music, Museum, McCann Collection, 2004.1482. Images reproduced with permission from the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Though Blagrove’s orthography presents no difficulties, I offer a transcription in which the added superscript letters serve as “cues” to the topics discussed below.

195 Euston Road
Euston Squarea
September 28th 1863

Madam,

In reply to your letter I beg / to say that I shall have much / pleasure in giving you any / information I can respecting / concertinas.

The best instruments are now / sold by Messrs Cramer & Co.b / 210. Regent Street,c the prices / of which, are, from 2 to 12 Guineas / [page 2] any amount above 12 Guineas / is merely for ornament,d or / for a Concertina with an extended / compass, which is not generally / used.e

The Instrument at 2 Guineas full / compass is very inferior in tone / to that at 5 Guineas, and would be / more liable to get out of tune, / but I think that it would answer / very well for persons to practise / their parts on, and in case / [page 3] they made great progress they / could easily exchange it for / one of the better class of Instruments. / The Artists Concertina selected / by Richard Blagrovef price 12 / Guineas is the finest Instrument / ever produced, and is warrented [sic] / to keep in tune.

In case you should require / any Concertinas I shall be / happy to call at Messrs Cramer / & Co. to select what you / order.g I am Madam

Yours obedien[t]ly
Richard Blagrove.

What follows takes up the seven passages cued above.

  1. 195 Euston Road, Euston Square: The English census of 1861 lists Blagrove as a Professor of Music and head of the household at 195 Euston Road, where he resided with his sister, Ellen (Eleanor) Attwater (age forty-five), her three teenage sons, and two servants. 2
  2. Cramer & Co.: Founded in 1824 by the Mannheim-born composer and piano virtuoso Johann Baptist Cramer (1771 – 1858), the firm of Cramer & Co. flourished under various names (these reflecting changes in partnerships) throughout the Victorian era and beyond, and played a major role in three areas of English musical life: publishing, instrument sales, and piano manufacturing.
    Some words about Cramer personally and the firm are in order.

    1. Biography: 3 Having arrived in England at about the age of three, Cramer made his formal debut as a pianist at age ten, and shortly thereafter spent a year (1783) studying with Muzio Clementi, with whose career Cramer’s displays a number of striking similarities. In 1788, he undertook his first major tour on the Continent, with a second following in 1799, during which he met and befriended Beethoven in Vienna. After 1800, Cramer remained mainly in England, performing both publically and (as he preferred) at private gatherings. In 1813, he was one of the founding members of the Philharmonic Society, and was appointed to the Board of the Royal Academy of Music when that institution was founded in 1822. As for his activity as a composer: he combined a sense of stylistic conservativeness with a forward-looking pianistic technique. 4
    2. The firm: We can trace the firm’s various names — despite the shifting partnerships, the Wheatstone ledgers always use “Messrs Cramer & Co” or a close variant thereof — and addresses over the course of seven decades of the nineteenth century as follows (Table 1): 5

     

    Table 1. The various names under which and addresses at which “Cramer & Co.” operated, 1824 – 1895.

    Name Years Address(es)
    Cramer, Addison & Beale 1824-1835 201 Regent Street
      1835-1844 201 Regent Street,
    67 Conduit Street
    Note: also known simply as Cramer & Co.; Cramer’s partners: Robert Addison (d. 1868) and Frederick Beale (?1804/05-1863); Addison left the firm in 1844, replaced by William Chappell (1809-1888).
     
    Cramer, Beale & Chappell 1844-1861 201 Regent Street,
    67 Conduit Street
    (with additional satellite addresses)
    Note: also known as Cramer, Beale & Co.; Cramer died in 1858 (he had already left the firm some twenty years earlier); Chappell retired in 1861, at which time the firm came under the control of Frederick Beale, who brought in George Wood (?1812/13-1893).
     
    Cramer, Beale & Wood 1861-1863 199 & 201 Regent Street,
    67 Conduit Street,
    55 King Street
         
    Cramer & Co. 1864- 1870 199 & 201 Regent Street,
    67 Conduit Street,
    15 Westmoreland Street, Dublin
         
    Cramer, Wood & Co. 1871-1872 201 Regent Street,
    43 Moorehead
         
    Cramer (J.B.) & Co. 1872-1895  199, 207, 209, 210 Regent Street
    (with numerous satellite addresses). 6

    All of this raises an interesting question: why did Blagrove recommend Cramer & Co. in the first place, as opposed, say, to one of the leading manufacturers of concertinas, namely Wheatstone or Lachenal?

    Wheatstone first: although an 1859 Wheatstone price list claims that its concertinas are “used by Signor Regondi and Mr. Richard Blagrove,” 7 relations between Blagrove and Wheatstone’s seem to have begun fraying that very year. Table 2 provides a year-by-year summary of the number of times that Blagrove’s name appears in the Wheatstone ledgers from January 1839 through May 1870 (Appendix A provides a full accounting). 8

    Table 2. Number of entries on a year-by-year basis containing Richard Blagrove’s name in the Wheatstone ledgers, January 1839 – May 1870. Years indicated in italics are incomplete in the ledgers. The years 1849-1850 are missing entirely (see note 8), their place indicated by – – –.

    1839a 1 1855 20
    1840 0 1856 24
    1841 0 1857 14
    1842 0 1858 17
    1843 2 1859 2
    1844 1 1860 4
    1845 8 1861 0
    1846 6 1862 1
    1847 11 1863 0
    1848b 3 1864 0
    – – –   1865 3
    – – –   1866 0
    1851 7 1867 0
    1852 21 1868 8
    1853 13 1869 1
    1854 30 1870c 0

    a Entries begin on April 30th. b Entries break off as of April 5th. c Entries break off as of May 23rd.

    What caused this precipitous decline in Blagrove’s presence in the ledgers beginning in 1859? I would suggest that Blagrove may have shifted his allegiance to instruments manufactured by the Swiss émigré Louis Lachenal, who, after a lengthy association with Wheatstone’s, had gone into business for himself the previous year. 9 Telling in this respect is Lachenal’s price list of 1861, which describes the firm’s 48-key, “extra best” instrument as follows (Fig. 2):

    Fig. 2. Lachenal price list in MDRA/1861; online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/pricelists/lachenal/Lachenal-MDRA-1861.pdf.

    48 Keys, extra best
    and ornamented
    with silver touches
    for concerts . . . .    		 [music staff
    showing g – c’’’’]    		  12. Rosewood 8.8.0
    Newly improved, orna-
    mented throughout, con-
    tains louder and sweeter
    tones than any Treble Con-
    certina ever before pro-
    duced, and is adopted by
    Mr. R Blagrove     [my emphasis], and other eminent professors.

    Thus unlike the Wheatstone price list, where Blagrove shares the billing with Regondi — and not in alphabetical order! — the Lachenal document places Blagrove front and center, accompanied only by a nameless mass of “eminent professors.”

    Moreover, it was probably around 1860 (perhaps a bit earlier) that Blagrove also became the concertina teacher to three of Lachenal’s daughters: Marie (1848 – 1937), Eugenie (1849 – 1883), and Josephine (1851 – 1915), who enjoyed notable (if somewhat brief) success on the concert stage during the early and mid-1860s at London, Dublin, and Edinburgh. 10 In fact, among the works that the sisters performed at their Edinburgh concert on 21 October 1865 was Blagrove’s own Duo Concertante, from “Les Huguenots” of Meyerbeer for treble and tenor concertinas. 11 Finally, though clearly not chronologically relevant to our discussion: when, at some point during the period 1883-1889, Blagrove desired a photo-portrait of himself for a calling-card, it was to the photography studio of Debenham & Gabell that he went, the Debenham in question being William Elliot Debenham, the older brother of Edwin Debenham, who had married Marie Lachenal in 1868. 12

    Yet despite these close connections to the Lachenals, it was to 210 Regent Street — not 8, Little James Street, Bedford Row (the site of Lachenal’s shop) — that Blagrove sent his correspondent.

    As for Cramer & Co.: at no time did any “version” (combination of partners) of that firm manufacture concertinas. Rather they bought instruments from Wheatstone and, no doubt, other manufacturers. Thus from 16 September 1844 through 11 February 1870, the Wheatstone ledgers record no fewer than fifty-one sales to Cramer & Co., with the sixteen sales in 1851 (just under one-third of the total) marking the most intense period of activity (see Appendix B). 13 And if they sometimes sold these instruments with the original labels of the manufacturers, we will see that they also relabeled them with oval badges that read “Cramer & Cos” (see §f below).

    Why, in the end, did Blagrove recommend Cramer & Co., which, under the name “Cramer, Wood & Co,” also published Blagrove’s Instruction Book for the Study of the Concertina in 1864? 14 One rather obvious answer is that, as a firm that sold instruments made by a number of manufacturers, Cramer & Co. offered the prospective buyer a wider choice of concertinas than did any single maker. Yet plausible as this is, I think there was another, somewhat less altruistic, reason: that Blagrove had recently(?) struck up a kind of “endorsement” deal with Cramer & Co., one that we will consider in §f, below.

  3. 210 Regent Street: Blagrove presents us with something of a conundrum. Although he clearly gives Cramer & Co.’s address as 210 Regent Street, Table 1 shows that the firm did not occupy that address until 1872, until which time they had long been settled at number 201 on that street (which address also appears — together with 209, which housed the Piano Gallery — on the title page of Blagrove’s contemporary Instruction Book). Did Blagrove merely err in connection with the last two numbers, or did Cramer & Co. have some kind of unofficial — and unadvertised — access to 210. And is it merely coincidence that when, for 1872, Parkinson lists 210 for the first time (see Table 1), 201 disappears from the list of addresses? In the end, I can shed no light on the matter.
  4. from 2 to 12 Guineas: 15 We can place the prices given by Blagrove into context by comparing them with those cited in the price lists issued by four manufacturers at about the same time:
    • Wheatstone/1859 lists their 48-key instruments at from four to twelve guineas; concertinas in the two-guinea range are limited to those with only twenty-two or twenty-four keys (see note 7).
    • George Case/1860 also offers a range of four to twelve guineas, the latter price holding as well for baritone and bass concertinas. 16
    • Lachenal/1861 has bottom-of-the-line 48-key instruments for three guineas and then tops out at eight guineas for his “extra best [48-key treble . . . ] ornamented with silver touches”; tenor and baritone concertinas push the top of the range up to eleven guineas (see Fig. 2 and the bibliographical information given there).
    • Scates/1862: “The Prices of Ordinary Instruments range from 8 to 12 Guineas each.”17

    In all, Blagrove is pretty much on the mark.

  5. extended compass which is not generally used: By “extended compass” Blagrove refers to the treble concertina with fifty-six buttons, as opposed to the more customary 48-button instrument, which had become more or less standard by mid-century and which was usually referred to as an instrument with “full compass.” 18 Thus a treble concertina with an extended compass had a four-octave range that went from the low g (a 4th beneath middle C) up to g’’’’. Though the 56-button instrument was only occasionally used at the time Blagrove wrote the letter, there are ossia (that is, alternate) passages for the extended compass in at least two of Blagrove’s later (one only slightly so) compositions: Souvenirs de Donizetti (1867) and Fantasia on National Airs (1886), both for treble concertina and piano. 19 Example 1 offers measures 103-104 and 133-137 of the Fantasia.

    Ex. 1. Blagrove, Fantasia on National Airs (London: Wheatstone, 1886):
    (a) meas. 103-104, (b) meas. 133-137 (concertina part only).




    Still another work from the period that calls for the extended compass is George Roe’s Recollections of Scotland: Fantasia Brilliante of 1875 (Ex. 2), which, as its title page tells us, also had an orchestral accompaniment (available in manuscript only) that could be rented from Wheatstone’s. 20

    Ex. 2. George Roe, Recollections of Scotland: Fantasia Brilliante (London:Wheatstone, 1875, meas. 17-24 (concertina part only).


    Finally, as I have noted elsewhere 21 — and at the risk of dealing with the matter in the sketchiest of terms — we might single out three landmark moments in the gestation of the 56-button compass: (1) Giulio Regondi played a 56-button instrument at a recital in Dresden on 26 October 1846; 22 (2) Wheatstone’s displayed a bass concertina with fifty-six buttons at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851; 23 and (3) that same firm began to turn out instruments with a range of g – g’’’’ as an option in the Spring of 1871. 24

  6. The Artists Concertina selected by Richard Blagrove: Among the instruments displayed and discussed at Neil Wayne’s “The Concertina Museum Collection” website, that catalogued as Ref: C-269 is of special interest to us. 25 Judged by Wayne to be a “post-1870 Wheatstone” (elsewhere he writes that it is “from 1880”), it bears the serial number 232 (at one point cited incorrectly as 237) on the reed pans, action board, bellow frames, and left-hand baffle. More important, though, is the information on the right-hand, oval-shaped label that appears in the place normally reserved for the manufacturer’s badge (Fig. 3):

    Fig. 3. Right-hand label on concertina Ref: C-269 in “The Concertina Museum Collection.”

    Selected By Richard Blagrove
    [Note that this line wraps around the outer
    border of the oval.]
    Cramer & Cos
    Artist’s
    Concertina

    And now, I think, we can understand why Blagrove was sending his “Dear Madam” to Cramer & Co. and praising that firm’s “Artist’s Concertina.” It would appear that he had entered into some kind of endorsement agreement with them, and that perhaps he even received a cut from every “Artist’s Concertina” sold. 26 Yet while this may well explain the seeming break with Wheatstone’s, we can only wonder why he did not strike such a deal with Lachenal, with whom, as we have seen, he apparently grew close circa 1860. Finally, Blagrove’s letter shows that Cramer & Co. was dealing with the Blagrove-endorsed “Artist’s Concertina” as early as 1863, a decade earlier than has been supposed.

  7. I shall be happy to call [ . . . ] to select what you order: Among the entries in the Wheatstone ledgers are many in which the name of a well-known concertinist is entered in conjunction with that of the person who is buying or renting an instrument. Further, the well-known concertinist cited seems to be, in each instance, someone who is known to have taught the instrument and who, as I have argued elsewhere, was likely picking up a concertina for his or her student. 27 Four citations will suffice (the placement of the names follows that in the ledgers):
    • 10 February 1845 Mr Case for Miss Goodman C1046, 33
    • 25 June 1848 Mr R. Blagrove for
    Mr Addison Uxbridge    		 C104a, 72
    • 12 April 1852 Miss Isabella Poynder
    Regondi    		 C1047, 57
    (Note: It was to Isabella Poynder that Regondi dedicated his Morceau de Salon: Andantino et Capriccio- Mazurka [1855].)
    • 4 November 1853 Mrs Robert Gowry
    Mrs A Stone    		 C1048, 61
    (Note: this is surely the Mrs. Arthur Stone who is listed as a Professor of concertina, guitar, and voice at 88 Great Portland Street in MDRA/1855, 70; on 21 January 1855, she advertised in the Times (p. 14):
    “MRS ARTHUR STONE begs to announce she continues to give LESSONS in SINGING, the Guitar, and Concertina – 88, Great Portland-street, Portland-place.” From 21 July 1855 through 1 July 1859, Mrs.Stone appears in the ledgers on nine occasions. Finally, perhaps she is related to the Mr. Stone who bought concertinas on 13 June and 8 September 1854 (C1049, 9, 19). 28

    That Blagrove therefore expresses his willingness to go over to Cramer & Co. in order to fetch the concertina that the unnamed recipient of the letter might order is nothing at all out of the ordinary. Rather it was simply a service that “Professors of Concertina” seem to have provided.

To conclude: our letter is important for a number of reasons: (1) it appears to be the only known letter written in Blagrove’s hand; (2) it shows that the Blagrove – Cramer & Co. – Artist’s Concertina connection was already in place by 1863 at the latest; (3) it sheds some light on the drastic decline in the number of Blagrove entries in the Wheatstone ledgers beginning in 1859; and (4) it confirms my earlier suggestion that the leading concertina teachers of the day were happy — or should we say obliged — to run around town in order to pick up instruments for their students (both current and prospective). As such, it adds to our knowledge of the mid-Victorian concertina world, both in general and as it pertains to Richard Blagrove in particular.

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Blagrove in the Wheatstone Ledgers

What follows lists all 179 references to Richard Blagrove in the Wheatstone ledgers. With respect to the overlapping entries in C1046 (organized chronologically) and C104a (organized by serial number): when, as they sometimes do, they differ either partially or entirely, I provide both entries. Throughout the ledgers there are three types of entries that pertain to Blagrove without mentioning his name. Two of these are clear cut: a notated reference to Blagrove is followed either by “D[itt]o” or “Mr — —” (at no point have I reproduced the ledgers’ use of superscripts); I have passed over these silently. The third type is more problematical and perhaps even open to question: on six occasions an entry for Blagrove is followed by a blank space where a name should appear; I have counted these as referring to Blagrove, and I have noted their appearance in the Comments column. The ledgers’ utilize a number of abbreviations in recording their transactions, three of which appear in entries concerning Blagrove: “Ex” = “Exchanged”; “ret” = “returned”; and “SH” = “Second Hand.” Finally, although the ledgers begin to provide prices for the instruments as of 1 January 1851 (ledger C1047), I have not included them.

Year Date Serial # Ledger/Page Comment
1837 20 Nov 156 C104a, 9 main entry for the Hon. Mrs. C. Goulbourne and #165; “by Blagrove” in pencil with reference to a later transaction (8 January 1847) concerning a Mr. Hastrick and #156
 
1838 no entries for Blagrove
 
1839 13 Jan 168 C104a, 9 “Master D Blagrove (on hire)”; first unequivocal reference to Blagrove
 
1840 – 1841 – 1842 no entries for Blagrove
 
1843 9 Feb 614 C1046, 18; C104a, 32
  6 Mar 627 C1046, 18; C104a, 33  
 
1844 30 Dec 867 C1046, 32; C104a, 45 C104a gives date as 28 Dec
 
1845 24 Jan 914 C1046, 32 C104a, 47, provides the following for #914: pencil entry “Macdonel 1/2 note lower Jan 23 47”; and then, in a second entry in ink: “Sir John Forbes 14 May 47”
    869 C1046, 32 C104a, 45: “Miss Wilson Qy,” 24 Jan 1845; “Qy” appears only in C104a, seemingly in conjunction with problematic entries of one sort or another
  7 June 990 C1046, 36; C104a, 51  
  17 June 930 C1046, 36; C104a, 48  
  9 July 996 C1046, 37 main entry for Lady Anne Loftus, followed by “(Blagrove)”
  18 Nov 1055 C104a, 54 pencil entry: “Miss Hale by Blagrove”
  20 Nov 1046 C1046, 40; C104a, 54 C1046: “lent”
  undated 830 C104a, 43 main entry: “Mr G Case” in ink, “Blagrove” in pencil
 
1846 9 Mar 999 &1104 C1046, 44 both instruments in a single entry; C104a, 51, lacks an entry for #999; for 1104: lists “C Whittingham Esqre” for #1104 (p. 57)
  30 Mar 1096 & 1101 C1046, 45; C104a, 57 C1046 lists both instruments in a single entry; C104a confirms Blagrove for #1096, but lists “Mr G Price” for #1101
  30 Sept 1238 C104a, 63  
  26 Nov 1294 C1046, 52; C104a, 66 C104a : original entry for “Rev. Cha[rle]s Gape, crossed out; “Blagrove” in pencil and then in ink with date of 13 April 1847
  3 Dec 1015 C1046, 52; C104a, 52 C1046: “SH” C104a adds “Miss Franks Evans” in pencil
  26 Dec 1141 C1046, 53; C104a, 59 C1046: “R. Blagrove for Mr Gowing”; C104a gives the date 5 Jan 1847 and adds that Mr. Gowing is from Swaffham, about 30 miles west of Norwich
 
1847 8 Feb 1299 C1046, 55; C104a, 66  
  1 Mar 1304 C104a, 67 main entry: “Lady Leighton” in ink, followed by “Blagrove” in pencil
  19 Mar 877 C1046, 56; C104a, 45 C104a gives the date as 21 Sept 1847
  1 May 1338 C1046, 58; C104a, 68  
  17 July 1357 C1046, 60; C104a, 69  
  23 July 1291 C1046, 60; C104a, 66  
  5 Aug 1371 C1046, 60; C104a, 70  
  28 Aug – – – – C1046, 61 a “Double” (without serial number)
  3 Nov 1405 C1046, 63; C104a, 72  
  4 Nov 1399 C1046, 63; C104a, 71  
  6 Nov 1404 C1046, 63 C104a, 72, assigns this instrument to “Lady Parke” with the date 14 Dec 1847
 
1848 25 Jan 1417 C1046, 65; C104a, 72 C104a: “Mr R Blagrove for Mr Addison Uxbridge”;
  9 Mar 682 C1046, 67; C104a,36 C104a: original entry for “Mr F Fry” dated 19 July 1843, followed by a pencil entry for “Cruikshank,” and finally “Mr R Blagrove” on 9 Mar 1848
  30 Mar 802 C1046, 68; C104a, 42 C104a: “J Hutchinson” dated 9 July 1844
 
N.B.: The final entry in C1046 is on 5 April 1848; the next ledger, C1047, begins on 1 January 1851; clearly, an entire ledger is missing (see note 8).
 
1851 11 Apr 2443 C1047, 14 “hire”
  28 Apr 3462 C1047, 15  
  2 Sept 3634 C1047, 26 main entry: “Mr Lewis,” followed by “Mr Blagrove” in parentheses
  2 Oct 3615 C1047, 29 “lent”
  4 Nov 3494 C1047, 32  
  13 Dec 4086 C1047, 38  
  30 Dec 2792 C1047, 41  
 
1852 27 Jan 3449 C1047, 47 “Mr R Blagrove for Mr S[- – – -]forth”; I cannot read the interior portion of the name
  7 Feb 3714 C1047, 48  
  21 Feb 4111 C1047, 51 “Ex”
  20 Apr 2831 C1047, 58 “lent”
  20 Apr 2525 C1047, 58 “lent”
  23 Apr 4526 C1047, 59 main entry: “Miss Bert,” followed by “Blagrove”
  30 Apr 4526 C1047, 60 “Ex”
  11 May – – – – C1047, 61 “lent concert tenor”; without serial number
  11 May – – – – C1047, 61 “lent concert bass”; without serial number
  11 May 4148 C1047, 61  
  19 May 4140 C1047, 62 “lent”
  5 July 4556 C1047, 68  
  18 Sept 4695 C1047, 75 “Ex”
  15 Oct 4112 C1047, 79 below Blagrove’s name: “Lord Leveson-Gowen”
  21 Oct 4140 C1047, 80  
  26 Oct 4680 C1048, 1 “Ex”
  3 Nov 4708 C1048, 3 “Ex”; the serial number originally entered was 4699, which was subsequently crossed out’
  3 Nov 2129 C1048, 3 price listed as £7.17.6 (see below, 7 Dec)
  9 Nov 5029 C1048, 7 “Nov 17 “Ex””
  7 Dec 5080 C1048, 13  
    2129 C1048, 13 price listed as £9.9.0 (see above, 3 Dec); above the serial number “tops only”; it would seem that #2129 was outfitted with new wooden sides; note that the word “tops” is rather indistinct, and I am grateful to my good friend David Cannata for the reading
    4702 C1048, 13  
  11 Dec 5079 C1048, 14  
 
1853 7 Mar 5065 C1048, 27  
  30 Apr 1985 C1048, 37 “Bass”
  21 May 5168 C1048, 40  
  4 June 5163 C1048, 42 beneath Blagrove’s name: “Miss Berkel[e]y”
  4 June 5166 C1048, 42  
  15 June 2437 C1048, 43 “lent”
  20 June 5142 C1048, 43  
  28 June 5041 C1048, 44  
  16 July 5235 C1048, 47 “Ex”
  18 July 5357 C1048, 47 space for name is blank
  20 July 5331 C1048, 47 main entry: “Miss Emily Bulteel,” beneath which: “RB”
  30 July 5329 C1048, 48 main entry: “Cha[rle]s Ed[ward] Fraser Tytler,” beneath which: “RB”
  23 Dec 4080 C1048, 69  
 
1854 25 Jan 4150 C1048, 72  
  25 Feb 5334 C1048, 77 main entry: “Miss Sebastian Smith,” beneath which: “RB”
  22 Mar 5503 C1049, 1 “ret hire”
  22 Mar 5175 C1049, 1 “hire”
  13 Apr 5818 C1049, 3  
  25 Apr 5503 C1049, 4 “hire”
  6 June 5286 C1049, 8 “Ex”
  19 June 5909 C1049, 10  
  19 June 5911 C1049, 10  
  19 June 6241 C1049, 10  
  13 July 6565 C1049, 12  
  21 July 3289 C1049, 13 no price given
  22 July 3289 C1049, 13 price now given as £7.0.0
  27 July 6647 C1049, 13 “Ex”
  4 Aug 6648 C1049, 14  
  4 Aug 6649 C1049, 14  
  11 Aug 6551 C1049, 15  
  17 Aug 1056 C1049, 15  
  17 Aug 176 (!) C1049, 15 space for name is blank; C104a, has no entry for #176
  24 Aug 6652 C1049, 17  
  24 Aug 6653 C1049, 17  
  18 Sept 1430 C1049, 22 “Ex”
  10 Nov 4372 C1049, 31  
  29 Nov 6627 C1049, 33  
  29 Nov 6660 C1049, 33  
  4 Dec 6613 C1049, 34  
  7 Dec 6606 C1049, 34  
  8 Dec 2445 C1049, 34 “hire”
  22 Dec 5295 C1049, 38  
  23 Dec 5563 C1049, 38 “hire”
 
1855 4 Jan 6666 C1049, 40 “Ex”
  13 Jan 6612 C1049, 41  
  22 Jan 6719 C1049, 42  
  29 Jan 6701 C1049, 43  
  14 Mar 2614 C1049, 48  
  12 Apr 6593 C1049, 51 “Ex”
  12 Apr 6679 C1049, 51  
  28 May 6700 C1049, 56  
  8 June – – – – C1049, 56 no serial number; “hire”
  12 June 6691 C1049, 57  
  3 July 6692 C1049, 59  
  11 July 6756 C1049, 60  
  31 July 7188 C1049, 63  
  14 Aug 6739 C1049, 64  
  9 Oct 408 (!) C1049, 72 C104a, 21, records the sale of #408 to “Twiss Esqre” on 16 July 1844
  8 Nov 6791 C1049, 75  
  16 Nov 1594 C1049, 77  
  16 Nov 1184 C1049, 77  
  28 Nov 5587 C1049, 79 “hire”
  11 Dec 6796 C1049, 80  
 
1856 9 Feb 8174 C1049, 88 “Ex”
  29 Feb 8182 C1049, 92  
  6 Mar 8156 C1049, 92  
  12 Mar 7513 C1049, 93 “hire”
  3 May 8240 C1050, 4 “Ex”
  7 May 8242 C1050, 4  
  7 May 3084 C1050, 4  
  4 June 5577 C1050, 9 “hire”
  9 June 7580 C1050, 11  
  9 June 5898 C1050, 11 space for name is blank, but follows entry for Blagrove; “hire”
  11 June 5283 C1050, 11 “hire”
  25 June 7574 C1050, 14  
  5 July 8092 C1050, 16  
  5 July 8652 C1050, 16  
  10 July 7211 C1050, 17  
  10 July 8093 C1050, 17 space for name is blank
  29 July 8225 C1050, 20 “Ex”
  12 Aug 5584 C1050, 22 “hire”
  26 Aug 1997 C1050, 24 “hire”
  26 Sept – – – – C1050, 28 no serial number; “hire”
  1 Oct 8930 C1050, 29 “Ex”
  4 Nov 8247 C1050, 38  
  15 Nov 5634 C1050, 40 “hire”
  19 Nov 4991 C1050, 41 “hire”
 
1857 10 Jan 8925 C1050, 50 “Ex”
  7 Feb 9546 C1050, 53 “Ex”
  7 Feb 9483 C1050, 53  
  18 Feb 9894 C1050, 55  
  21 Feb 9461 C1050, 56  
  28 Mar 9505 C1050, 63 “Ex”
  31 Mar 9878 C1050, 63  
  31 Mar 9203 C1050, 63 space for name is blank
  19 May 9548 C1050, 73  
  2 June 7739 C1050, 76  
  25 July 9391 C1050, 84  
  26 Sept 9530 C1050, 91  
  18 Dec 9906 C1051, 8  
  28 Dec 6482 C1051, 9 “Mr R Blagrove for Mr Millett”; “SH”
 
1858 9 Jan 5603 C1051, 11 “SH”
  16 Mar 4892 C1051, 20 “SH”
  31 Mar 4896 C1051, 22 “SH”
  20 Apr 4897 C1051, 25 “SH”
  28 Apr 9859 C1051, 26  
  14 May 10391 C1051, 28  
  15 May 10386 C1051, 28  
  25 June 9547 C1051, 31 “SH”; “Ex”
  14 July 10654 C1051, 32  
  19 July 10393 C1051, 34.1 this page is an insert, written in a later hand and in blue ink that appears nowhere else in the ledgers
  6 Aug 9877 C1051, 35  
  11 Aug 5599 C1051, 35 “hire”
  19 Oct 5762 C1051, 46  
  20 Oct 3643 C1051, 46  
  22 Nov 9565 C1051, 52  
  3 Dec 10650 C1051, 53  
  7 Dec 9932 C1051, 54  
 
1859 14 May 5188 C1051, 74 “lent”
  21 May 2833 C1051, 75 “Budd by Blagrove”
 
1860 3 Feb – – – – C1052, 11 no serial number; instead: “Case 351”; “lent”
  3 Feb – – – – C1052, 11 no serial number; “BASS”; “lent”
  19 June 8906 C1052, 24 “lent”
  19 June – – – – C1052, 24 no serial number; space for name is blank, but follows entry for Blagrove
 
1861 no entries for Blagrove
 
1862 29 Apr 10827 C1052, 70  
 
1863 – 1864 no entries for Blagrove
 
1865 3 Mar 5771 C1053, 12 “SH”
  27 Apr – – – – C1053, 13 no serial number; instead: “Case 2694”; “lent”
  14 Dec 18171 C1053, 30  
 
1866 – 1867 no entries for Blagrove
 
1868 20 Mar 18321 C1053, 43 “lent”
  18 May 13357 C1053, 44 “hire”
  5 June 18316 C1053, 45 “hire”
  7 June 18324 C1053, 45 “hire”
  2 July 18362 C1053, 46 “hire”
  21 July 18371 C1053, 46 “hire”
  23 July 18315 C1053, 46 “hire”
  17 Nov 18314 C1053, 49 “hire”
 
1869 18 Nov – – – – C1053, 60 “new model Bass”; “hire”
 
1870 no entries for Blagrove

N.B.: ledger C1053 breaks off after entry on 23 May (p. 67)

Appendix B: Cramer & Co. in the Wheatstone Ledgers

Appendix B lists the fifty-one entries for Cramer & Co. in the Wheatstone ledgers. Though the company was known under various names depending upon the changing partnerships (see Table 1, above), the ledgers consistently use “Cramer & Co” or variants thereof (again, I have not reproduced the ledgers’ superscripts, and thus what some might judge to be the typographically awkward “Messrs.” As noted in Appendix A, the ledgers begin to include prices as of 1 January 1851 (in C1047); here I include them. If, as sometimes happens, a transaction fails to include either a serial number or, after 1 January 1851, a price, I indicate that with – – – -. Finally, when a price applies to more than one instrument, I note that in the Comments, enter the price in the space for the first instrument to which it applies, and leave the “price column” blank in the subsequent entries.

Year Date Serial # Price Ledger/Page Comments
No date 147   C104a, 8 “Amboyna”; nested among entries from 1837
 
1844 16 Sept 560   C1046, 30; C104a, 29 C1046: “Messrs Cremer Brothers”(!)
 
1845 22 Sept 1016   C1046, 38; C104a, 52  
  21 Oct 973   C1046, 39; C104a, 50  
  22 Oct 1011   C1046, 39 no entry for this serial number in C104a
  5 Nov 978   C1046, 40; C104a, 50  
  13 Dec 1029   C1046, 41; C104a, 53 C104a: 12 Dec
 
1846 7 Jan 1050   C1046, 42; C104a, 54  
  24 Jan 1060   C1046, 42; C104a, 54 C1046: originally #1132 in pencil, this crossed out and 1060 entered in its place, also in pencil; C104a: no date and with “(Viscount Brackly)”
  18 May 1060 (!)   C1046, 46 serial number in pencil; does repetition of #1060 have to do with alteration in C1046 on 24 Jan?
 
1847 8 July 1355   C1046, 59; C104a, 69  
  7 Dec 1332   C104a, 68 no entry for this date in C1046, and no other entry for Cramer & Co. nearby
 
1848 no entries for Cramer & Co. in 1848 prior to C1046 breaking off after entry of 5 April; entries resume on 1 January 1851 (ledger C1047)
 
1851 15 Feb 2880 42.0.0 C1047, 6 the price appears in the last entry for 15 Feb and represents the total for all six instruments
  15 Feb 2881   C1047, 6  
  15 Feb 2882   C1047, 6  
  15 Feb 2871   C1047, 6  
  15 Feb 2877   C1047, 7  
  15 Feb 2878   C1047, 7  
  27 Feb 3259 12.0.0 C1047, 9 after “Cramer & Co”: “Brighton,” which also applies to #3260; the price is for both instruments
  27 Feb 3260   C1047, 9  
  27 Feb 2959 7.17.6 C1047, 9  
  8 Apr 2758 – – – – C1047, 13 “Ex”
  9 Apr 2884 – – – – C1047, 14 “Ex”
  16 May 3072 9.0.0 C1047, 17  
  28 July 3025 – – – – C1047, 23 note: no price for any transaction on 28 July
  28 July 3045 – – – – C1047, 23  
  28 July 3048 – – – – C1047, 23  
  28 July 2049 – – – – C1047, 23  
 
1852 17 Jan 1300 4.14.6 C1047, 44  
  27 July 3585 6.6.0 C1047, 70  
 
1853 1 Jan 5090 7.0.0 C1048, 18  
  1 Jan 4445 10.0.0 C1048, 18 the price is for #s 4445 and 4795
  1 Jan 4795   C1048, 18  
 
1854 17 Oct 6528 8.8.0 C1049, 27  
 
1855 6 Feb 5518 7.0.0 C1049, 44 entry reads: “Messrs Cramers” (my emphasis), as do (unless otherwise noted) all the entries through 22 June 1856, as well as that on 14 Dec 1857; afterwards, the reference to the firm varies from one entry to another, and I offer each version as it appears
  28 July 6276 7.0.0 C1049, 62  
  30 July 7803 5.12.0 C1049, 62  
  16 Nov 7837 5.12.0 C1049, 77  
 
1856 22 Jan 6319 7.0.0 C1049, 85  
  22 June 6289 7.0.0 C1050, 14  
  21 Oct 8934 – – – – C1050, 34 “Messrs Cramer” (without final “s” – see Comments for entry on 6 Feb 1855)
 
1857 14 Dec 9093 2.7.6 C1051, 7  
 
1858 13 July 10245 2.7.6 C1051, 32 “Cramers Messrs”
  29 Dec 7443 4.4.0 C1051, 57 “Cramers Mr”
 
1859 5 Jan – – – – – – – – C1051, 58 “Cramers & Co”
 
1860 no entries for Cramer & Co.
 
1861 19 Aug 9236 1.7.6 C1052, 56 “Cramers”
 
1862 – 1865 no entries for Cramer & Co.
 
1866 11 July 18103 6.6.0 C1053, 26 “Messrs Cramer & Co” (not repeated for #18104); the price includes both #s 18103 and 18104
  11 July 18104   C1053, 26  
 
1867 3 Apr 18179 3.3.0 C1053, 33 “Cramer”
  3 Apr 18167 3.3.0 C1053, 33 “Cramer”
 
1868 – 1869 no entries for Cramer & Co.
 
1870 11 Feb 18515 18.18.0 C1053, 63 “Cramer & Co”; note that a Cramer & Co. price list published in Public Opinion, 10 (17 February 1866), p. i (in the adverts section), lists a treble concertina for 18.18.0, describing it as follows: “Extended compass . . . / Amboyna, or Oak, inlaid, extra finish, in Rosewood Cases . . .”; in 1862, both Scates and Lachenal (the latter in his price list for the International Exhibition – see above) advertised trebles for 18 guineas with gold “vibrators”; Lachenal’s concertina also had ivory tops

N.B.: ledger C1053 breaks off after entry on 23 May (p. 67)

  1. My thanks to Dr. Barbara Diana, Special Collections Cataloguer at the Academy, for calling the letter to my attention and sending me a copy. Thanks also to Mr. Ian Brearey for processing my request for a high-resolution image both quickly and in painless fashion.
  2. Census Returns of England and Wales for the Year 1861 (London, 1861); online at Ancestry.com/1861 England census. By the time the 1871 census was taken, Blagrove, now married to Elizabeth Freeth and himself the father of three children, had moved to 108 Union Grove. It was Elizabeth who accompanied Blagrove at his 23 November 1868 recital at Windsor Castle; the program appears in Allan W. Atlas, The Wheatstone English Concertina in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), plate 11. My thanks to Randall C. Merris for sharing with me scanned images of the census records.
  3. I draw upon Jerald Graue and Thomas Milligan, “Cramer: (2) Johann Baptist Cramer,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, eds. (London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. 6, 640-43; online at http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/44589pg2. Our Cramer should not be conflated with the English-born manufacturer of wind instruments, John Cramer, who flourished in London from c. 1785 to 1828; see Anne Beetem Acker, “J.B. Cramer,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd ed., Laurence Libin, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), i, 70.
  4. For a catalogue of Cramer’s compositions, see Thomas B. Milligan, Johann Baptist Cramer (1771-1858): A Thematic Catalogue of his Works. Thematic Catalogue Series, 19 (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1992). There is a generous selection of his music for solo piano in Nicholas Temperley, ed., The London Pianoforte School, vols. 9 – 11 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1984-1985).
  5. Although we will have occasion to question one aspect of Table 1 when we discuss Blagrove’s 1864 Instruction Book for the Study of the Concertina (see below and note 14), the table follows (precisely) John A. Parkinson, Victorian Music Publishers: An Annotated List (Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1990), 62-63; see also, Charles Humphries and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the British Isles from the Beginning until the Middle of the Nineteenth Century, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1970), 120-21; Frank Kidson, British Music Publishers, Printers and Engravers: London, Provincial, Scottish, and Irish (London: W.E. Hill & Sons, 1900; reprint – New York: Benjamin Blom, 1967), 34-35.
  6. A ghost of the firm’s piano manufacturing lives on; in 1964, that part of the business was absorbed by Kemble & Co., which was in turn bought up by Yamaha in 1969; Cramer’s “ghosts” are now manufactured in Indonesia, intended mainly for distribution in Asia; see Acker, “J.B. Cramer,” 710.
  7. The entire sentence reads: “Concertinas, with full compass (48 Keys) from 4 to 12 Guineas, the latter as used by Signor Regondi and Mr. Richard Blagrove.” The price list appears in Musical Directory, Register and Almanac for 1859 (London: Rudall, Rose, Carte, 1859 — henceforth MDRA/year); online at “Concertina Library: Digital Reference Collection for Concertinas,” http://www.concertina.com/pricelists/wheatstone-english/Wheatstone-MDRA-1859.pdf.
  8. The ledgers are housed in the (Neil) Wayne Collection, The Horniman Museum, London. Thanks to the museum’s foresight and to the generous effort of Robert Gaskins, they are available in digital form at http://www.horniman.info. There is a gap in the coverage from 5 April 1848 through 31 December 1850 (an entire ledger is obviously missing), while the entries from 4 April 1835 to 4 April 1839 are patchy and likely incomplete. On the ledgers, see Atlas, “Ladies in the Wheatstone Ledgers: The Gendered Concertina in Victorian England, 1835-1870,” Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 39 (2006), 39-41, 58-66; online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/atlas/ladies/index.htm; Stephen Chambers, “Some Notes on Lachenal Concertina Production and Serial Numbers,” Papers of the International Concertina Association (hereafter PICA), 1 (2004),14-16, n. 4; online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/chambers/lachenal-production/index.htm. In addition to the sales ledgers, there are two books that list the firm’s expenses (for labor and materials)  for the periods January 1845 – August 1846 and January 1848 – June 1849, as well as one ledger that records the production of concertinas with serial numbers 18061 – 21353 (March 1866 – December 1891).
  9. On the firm of Lachenal, see especially Chambers, “Some Notes on Lachenal Concertina Production,” 3-23; and “Louis Lachenal: ‘Engineer and Concertina Manufacturer’ (Pt. I),” The Free-Reed Journal, 1 (1999), 7-18; online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/chambers/lachenal-part1/index.htm.
  10. On the concerts, see Faye Debenham and Randall C. Merris, “Marie Lachenal: Concertinist,” PICA, 2 (2005), 1-17, online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/merris/marie-lachenal/index.htm; Merris, “Notes on the Lachenal Sisters, Richard Blagrove, Ellen Attwater, Linda Scates, and ‘Dickens’,” PICA, 7 (2005), 20-28; Robert Gaskins, “The Lachenal Sisters Visit Edinburgh, 1865-1866,” online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/gaskins/lachenal-sisters/index.htm.
  11. Published by Wheatstone in 1862. For an edition of the work, see Atlas, Victorian Music for the English Concertina. Recent Researches in the Music of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, 52 (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2009), 134-44, with commentary on pp. xvi, 174.
  12. The portrait appears at “Concertina Library,” online at http://www.concertina.com/blagrove/richard-blagrove-portrait-debenham-and-gabell.htm. On the dates of the Debenham-Gabell partnership, see the database at “photoLondon,” online at http://www.photolondon.org.uk.
  13. The fifty-one entries include one undated transaction in ledger C104a for instrument #147; it is surrounded by entries from 1837.
  14. The publisher is so identified at the foot of the title page, where the address is given as 201 Regent Street (see below, §c). The British Museum date stamp — “1 AP 64” — appears on the final page (p. 38), and shows that a copy of the method book had been deposited by then. Being unaccustomed to two-letter abbreviations for the names of the months, I was befuddled by “AP” (I thought it signaled some arcane aspect of the copyright process). Thankfully, SOS-like queries to Nicholas Temperley and Christina Bashford — two of our foremost scholars in the field of Victorian music studies — brought forth same-day responses that added to “AP” the letters RIL. Thus the Instruction Book was published and deposited at the British Museum prior by 1 April 1864 at the latest. My thanks to both Nicholas and Christina (the latter of whom wrote the article “Blagrove. English Family of Musicians,” in New Grove, vol. 3, 670-71; online at www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grovemusic/03199).

    Yet the combination of the April 1864 deposit date and the identification of the publisher as “Cramer, Wood & Co.” raises a problem in connection with Table 1, since Parkinson dates that particular combination of partners only from 1871 – 1872. Once again I dispatched SOS’s, this time to Leanne Langley and Christine Kyprianides, both experts in the area of Victorian music publishing (and music journals). The short answer is this: upon the death of Frederick Beale on 26 June 1863, the firm experienced a period of confusion and restructuring, during which it did, in fact, operate briefly under the name Cramer, Wood & Co.; and it was during that period that Blagrove’s Instruction Book was published.

  15. A guinea was equal to twenty-one shillings, that is, one pound plus one shilling.
  16. In MDRA/1860; see “Concertina Library,” online at http://www.concertina.com/pricelists/case/Case-MDRA-1860.pdf. Note that none of Case’s prices is associated with a specific number of buttons. Further, Case’s price list notes that “George Case’s Patent Concertinas are manufactured by Boosey & Sons, with the aid of experienced workmen and patent machinery, under the personal superintendence of Mr. George Case, the eminent professor and performer.”
  17. “Joseph Scates, the Original Manufacturer of Concertinas,” in MDRA/1862; online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/pricelists/scates/Scates-MDRA-1862.pdf.
  18. As we can judge from ledger C1046 (pp. 24-32), the 48-button instrument had already become by far the most popular model by 1844. The 154 transactions that year break down as follows in terms of the number of buttons on each instrument (I round off the percentages to the nearest tenth of a percent): 48 buttons = 86 = 55.8%, 44 buttons = 35 = 22.7%, 32 buttons = 16 = 10.3%, 38 buttons = 8 = 5.1%, 36 buttons = 2 = 1.3%; there are three models for which there is only one transaction each; these refer to instruments with 40, 43, and 54 buttons; finally, three entries fail to list the number of buttons.
  19. Victorian music publications generally do not carry dates of publication. The above dates are derived from the British Library Integrated Catalogue, which, however, lists dates of accession (these generally — though not always — coinciding with dates of publication) . The catalogue is accessible online: http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org.
  20. The title page reads: “N.B.: Orchestral accompaniment (M.S. [manuscript]) to the above solo (as performed by Mr. Henry Roe at the ‘World’s Peace Jubilee,’ Boston, America; also at the Court-Gaiety-Globe Theatres, London; and Provincial Concerts &c) can be had by application to 20, Conduit Street, Regent Street, London, W.” (that is, at Wheatstone’s shop).
  21. In “The Victorian Concertina: Some Issues Relating to Performance,” Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 3/2 (2006), 56; online at “Concertina Library,” http://www.concertina.com/atlas/victorian-concertina-performance/index.htm.
  22. The report appears in a belated notice signed “F.W.M.” and headed “Aus Dresden” in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, xxvi/20 (8 March 1847), 80-81; the pertinent passage reads: “sogennanten Concertina [ . . . ] im Tone von g bis g’’’’ (the so-called Concertina [ . . . ] a range from g to g’’’’); the notice is printed in Helmut C. Jacobs, Der junge Gitarren- und Concertinavirtuose Giulio Regondi: Eine kritische Dokumentation seiner Konzertreise durch Europa 1840 und 1841 (Bochum: Augemus, 2001), 245, Doc. 117. Another review of the same concert makes it clear that Regondi also performed on a 48-button concertina; signed “Dr. J.S.” in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, xlviii/50 (16 December 1846), 853-54; reproduced in Jacobs, 242 , Doc. 115.
  23. See Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Description and Illustrated Catalogue (London: Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, 1851), 469-70; Peter and Ann Mactaggart, eds., Musical Instruments in the 1851 Exhibition (Welwyn, Herts: Mac & Me, 1986), 60.
  24. See the entries for April – June and October – December 1871 (pp. 158-59 in the digitized version; there are no entries at all for the period July – September ) in the “production book” catalogued as C1054 in the series of Wheatstone ledgers preserved in the Wayne Collection at the Horniman Museum (see above, note 8). As my friend Randy Merris has informed me (in an email of 29 August 2017), Lachenal was also turning out 56-button instruments at the time. According to Merris, the earliest Lachenal serial number with fifty-six buttons is no. 12362, which Merris dates from the mid-1460s.
  25. Online at http://www.concertinamuseum.com/CM00269i.htm, from which the following descriptions are taken.
  26. Perhaps concertina manufacturers recompensed concertina teachers who recommended buyers as matter of course; or did Blagrove enter into a such an agreement with Cramer & Co. because other manufacturers would not do business that way?
  27. See the discussion in Allan W. Atlas, “Ladies in the Wheatstone Ledgers,” 39-41.
  28. See Atlas, “Ladies in the Wheatstone Ledgers,” 29, 172.