Lot 254: CHARLES WHEATSTONE (B GLOUCESTER 1802, D PARIS 1875) A SYMPHONIUM LONDON, CIRCA 1830

measurements note
height 2 13/16in., 6.9cm

the trapezoid metal body with four out-curved feet, mother of pearl bushed mouth hole, twenty-four ivory tipped studs giving a partly chromatic compass of two octaves c¹ to c³, gold reeds

inscribed by his Majesty's letters patent, C. Wheatstone, Inventor, 20, Conduit St. Regent St., London, also stamped with the serial number 179

LITERATURE

Sold with a card inscribed to the effect that this instrument was played by John Parry (b Denbigh 1776, d London 1851), the Welsh instrumentalist and composer at the Nobilities Concerts in 1832. Parry composed The Symphonium Waltz for the instrument. See Allan W. Atlas The Wheatstone English Concertina in Victorian England, p 31.