Double concertina, of the 1844 patent system. Serial number 58 stamped on all parts (part of a separate Wheatstone run of serial numbers, probably reserved for double concertinas). Oval paper label: 'By Her Majesty's Letter Patent, Wheatstone & Co, Inventors, 20 Conduit St, London.', glued to pine backing ('Her Majesty' was used from around 1847). 7.5" diameter flat rosewood ends, simple fretwork pine backing (stamped 58 in left-hand number cartouche and scratched 58 on rear of right-hand pine backing). Green leather thumb straps, with nickel screws into circular inserts. No finger rests ever fitted. Five-fold green leather bellows with gold star papers, and a silk reinforced cover on lower bellows frame. The diameter of the folds is much less than that of the bellows frames. 57 ivory buttons, stamped and coloured: 25 left-hand (bass side) and 32 right-hand (treble end). The action is of conventional sheet brass levers, slotted pivots and wound brass wire springs, and card pallets. The pans have a mixture of square-end reed beds, and round ended beds filed to fit squared rebate slots. The right-hand pan has eight chambers with cork cross pieces. The left-hand pan has 10 deepest pairs of reeds with screw notches to enable them to be surface mounted to the pan: instead they are slotted in. Brass tongues and central pan hole. Sold on 18 February 1952.
