G'day again Dave the gnome,

I think the dates probably fit for concertinas being around early in the piece but replaced by small button accordions by the time when we start seeing photographs. Photography with the "wet plate" process was complicated and messy, needing immediate acces to a darkroom, usually a wagon in country areas. The dry plate was invented in 1872 and came into wide use in the 1880s but most pictures come from after the availability of the simple box camera from ~ 1890 - by which time concertinas were less common.

Of course the small stringed instruments - particularly fiddle and then mandolin - were around and popular all the time. Photos I have seen from this period in Australia (were the droving period runs from the 1850s to the 1940s - with somewhat of a revival in the present days) show concertinas (both cheap German types and quality English models ... probably the bosses', since they cost up to 10 x as much) along with mostly fiddles, zithers and occasional woodwind instruments. That said, all types of concertinas are found in mail order catalogues ~ 1905, along with button accordions (the rectangular ones with bass key or buttons on the left hand).

There were some strange instruments brought out by people who played in bands in Britain and turned to more rural pursuits in Australia! Of course the quality concertinas, the English ones have survived where they stayed in families and the 20 and 22-key anglo concertinas I play date from 1867 and 1880. Cheap German factory mass-produced ones tended to wear out quickly. I have some of these in my collection but few are still playable.

Regards,

Bob Bolton