Serial Number Lookup to Wheatstone Ledgers 1830s to 1890s
Robert Gaskins
and Wes Williams
This page offers a quick way to check whether a single serial number is in the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers
from the Horniman Museum. See the links below for full indexes compiled by Wes Williams. (Note that so far only
the nineteenth-century ledgers are included; the twentieth-century ledgers will be added in the future.)
Look up a Wheatstone Serial Number 1830s to 1890s
Instructions
To use the lookup above,
begin by entering the serial number you want to look up. Valid serial numbers run from 1 to 999999 (although just over 60,000
Wheatstone concertinas have ever been made, the ledgers include mistakes and mis-written numbers up to six digits).
Then click on the button that says “Look up that number in the ledgers”, and the results are displayed below.
Possible answers include "none found" or a list of occurrances of that serial number in the ledgers (from one up to fifteen
or twenty entries).
Be careful to check the list of results returned, because serial number entries are not
always what they seem. You will receive all mentions of a serial number, including the first sale, possible second-hand sales,
possible rental or on-approval transactions (all these for the earlier years) and manufacturing date (for the later years).
But there are also mis-written serial numbers (which are not corrected), serial numbers from instruments of other makers being resold, and serial numbers
from different kinds of instruments which may be the same. For instance, searching for the serial number 57 returns two
results, but one appears to be an instrument made by Joseph Scates in 1845, and the other is a "Double" duet made by Wheatstone
in 1851, with no record of an ordinary English concertina of that number.
A number of codes following the serial number are used to signify additional information.
Most of them indicate that the ledger shows that the instrument was made by another maker
and/or for another dealer,
and so the serial number is probably not a Wheatstone number. (Most of these makers are
profiled in "Minor Historic Concertina
Makers and Dealers", by Wes Williams.)
Other codes indicate sales
to buyers with serial numbers that may be non-Wheatstone, an unusual model of instrument
(such as "double" duets which had a separate serial number sequence),
or improbability of the serial number as read and/or uncertainty in reading the number.
Codes used are:
'A': Made for A. B. Sedgewick
'B': Bass instrument
'C': Made by Rock and Edward Chidley
'D': Double system duet instrument
'E': Harmonium
'F': Notation of "Frames" plus irregular price
'G': Made by George Case
'H': Anglo-German instrument
'J': Made by John Simpson
'L': Made by Louis Lachenal
'M': Made for J. B. Cramer & Co.
'N': Made by Nickolds
'P': Made for Keith, Prowse & Co.
'R': Made by Rudall
'S': Made by Joseph Scates
'T': Made by Turner
'X': Made by Rock Chidley
'?': Sold to Boosey/Case/Scates with unusual serial
'*': Sold to Boosey/Case/Scates with unusual serial
'+': insertion written vertically near serial 248
'!': Uncertain
Indexes to Ledgers
To study the pattern of serial numbers in the ledgers,
it is more convenient to view the indexes to the ledgers. Each index below contains a list of all the
serial numbers (or in one case dates) from a single ledger or a group of ledgers, with links to the original page images.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C104a, the "First Number Book",
serial no. 0001 to serial no. 1500 (includes dates 03 May 1834 to 05 April 1849).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Date index to Wheatstone Ledger C104a, the "First Number Book",
serial no. 0001 to serial no. 1500 (includes dates 03 May 1834 to 05 April 1849).
The record for each date entry gives its serial number (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1046, a sales ledger,
dates 30 April 1839 to 05 April 1848 (includes serial no. 16 to serial no. 1495).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1047, a sales ledger,
dates 01 January 1851 to 23 October 1852 (includes serial no. 57 to serial no. 5740).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1048, a sales ledger,
dates 23 October 1852 to 21 March 1854 (includes serial no. 56 to serial no. 7089).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1049, a sales ledger,
dates 21 March 1854 to 04 April 1856 (includes serial no. 52 to serial no. 8452).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1050, a sales ledger,
dates 05 April 1856 to 04 November 1857 (includes serial no. 15 to serial no. 10416).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1051, a sales ledger,
dates 04 November 1857 to 21 October 1859 (includes serial no. 350 to serial no. 11075).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1052, a sales ledger,
dates 21 October 1859 to 30 April 1864 (includes serial no. 19 to serial no. 12152).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1053, a sales ledger,
dates 30 April 1864 to 23 May 1870 (includes serial no. 16 to serial no. 18883).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledger C1054, a production ledger,
dates March 1866 to December 1891 (includes serial no. 18061 to serial no. 21353).
The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Serial number index to Wheatstone Ledgers covering the late 1830s to early 1890s.
Includes ledgers C1041, C1046, C1047, C1048, C1049, C1050, C1051, C1052, C1053,
and C1054. The record for each serial number entry gives its date (if present)
and a live link to the photograph of its page in the online ledgers.
Indexes listed on this page contain serial numbers and dates from
the Wheatstone Ledgers at the Horniman Museum, London.
Each item listed is a single index (either serial numbers or dates) to a single ledger.
Indexes lead to the ledger identification and page number as
a live link: click on it to see the colour photograph of the page from which the
information was taken. There is also an
automated lookup which finds all records for any single serial number
throughout all the indexed ledgers.
(Only indexes to nineteenth-century ledgers are yet completed. Additional indexes
to the twentieth-century ledgers will be listed here as they are published.)
Historical business records of C. Wheatstone & Co. from
the Horniman Museum in London. Earlier ledgers from the Wayne Archives
contain company sales records from the late 1830s to the 1860s
along with production records from the 1860s to the 1890s and some
early records of wages and other payments. Later ledgers from the Dickinson Archives
contain production records from 1910 to 1974. All surviving ledgers
have been digitized (some 2,300 pages in total) and made available free on the web for
private research.
The same material is also available to buy on an inexpensive CD.Includes an introduction to the project by Margaret Birley, Keeper of Musical Instruments at
the Horniman Museum, and an article by Robert Gaskins describing in detail how the ledgers
were digitized.
A major contribution to the muddling of serial numbers in the early ledgers is that
multiple ranges of serial numbers are in use at any one date, and this is further
complicated by instrument exchanges and hires. The multiple ranges begin as a feature of sales
before 1850, but after that the multiple range-lines dominate the structure of sales,
with many simultaneous ranges extended over longer periods. Scatter-plots of
serial numbers and dates transcribed from the Wheatstone Ledgers reveal the pattern.
This is a preliminary version dealing only with the
first four ledgers (to early 1854); the completed article will appear soon.
Most of these pricelists were found in old concertina cases. From internal evidence it is
possible to date the lists c. 1915 to c. 1965 (plus one very early pricelist dated 1848,
from the collection of the Horniman Museum, and a list published as an advertisement
in a trade directory in 1859). These lists contain information about Wheatstone
model numbers and descriptions which are useful to interpret the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers.
See also Duet pricelists from Wheatstone.See also Anglo pricelists from Wheatstone.
Most of these pricelists were found in old concertina cases. From internal evidence it is
possible to date the lists c. 1910 to c. 1965. These lists contain information about Wheatstone
model numbers and descriptions which are useful to interpret the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers.
See also English pricelists from Wheatstone.See also Duet pricelists from Wheatstone.
Most of these pricelists were found in old concertina cases. From internal evidence it is
possible to date the lists c. 1910 to c. 1965 (plus one very early pricelist for Double duets c. 1850).
These lists contain information about Wheatstone
model numbers and descriptions which are useful to interpret the Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers.
See also English pricelists from Wheatstone.See also Anglo pricelists from Wheatstone.
“How much would that be in new money?”
An interactive calculator to convert sterling values from any
year 1830–1999 to the equivalent value in the year 2000.
The calculation preserves the relation between the chosen value and
“average earnings” for the two dates; this method makes it
appropriate for converting wages and capital sums, and also for
expensive discretionary products such as concertinas. The calculator deals
with both “old money” (prior to 1971) and the later decimalized
currency. It is especially useful for understanding historical documents such
as old advertisements and pricelists, and the sales prices and wages
recorded in the
Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers
from the Horniman Museum.
The Horniman Museum in London is home to the largest collection of concertinas
(more than 600 instruments) and much related archival research material. A
photographic directory
of concertinas in the collection is available on the site.
The Wheatstone Concertina
Ledgers at the Museum have been digitized and are online
at a separate website.
