G'day Ancient Briton,

I have an interesting small book, published by Itinerari d'Immagini, Milano, in 1987- constituting the catalogue of Accordions, in the MUSEO miscellaneo GALBIATI, Brugherio. This covers English & German concertinas and bandonions, as well as accordion-type instruments from Germany, France, Austria and ... mostly ... Italy. The instruments are mainly from small masters - not big factories (although both Settimio and Paolo Soprani are well-represented).

One maker I was recently interested to see represented by a 3-row beautiful diatonic played by a Filipino in Australia's Darwin, during the Depression era - and who is well represented in the book is Mariano Dallape & Figlio ... of Stradella!

I think that, like car makers of the 20th century, the factories and production lines pushed out the master craftsmen of earlier, developmental times ... and the Castefidardo region's factories seem to have survived until recent times ... maybe the region's good Catholic image as "defenders of the Papal states (hence "Castelfidardo") served them well in the marketplace!

Regards,

Bob