Emilio Allodi in Lewisham bought out the remaining stock and spares - Bell used to be Hohner's UK dealership.

It's difficult to advise on its value without knowing a few more details - if you're not an accordion player the questions may not make a lot of sense...!

Easy ones first - how many piano keys and how many bass buttons?

Tricky - how many reeds per note on the right hand? Usually two or three, but if it's a 'Musette' model it could have four.

The 'registers' or 'couplers' will give a clue. There will probably be some keys above the piano keyboard with strange pictures on them. A couple of lines a bit like an 'equals' sign with one or more dots indicate how many reeds and in which register.

The middle register (between the lines) will have one or two dots, indicating unison pitch, a second dot indicating tremolo. A third dot indicates 'musette' tuning.

A dot underneath the 'equals' indicates a sub-octave reed, and one above indicates a super-octave reed (typically in 'continental' models).

Sorry if this is getting confusing, but these features determine who is likely to want to buy, which affects the selling price. Sadly, many accordions won't sell for much because they are simply not what people are looking for.

The ones that sell easiest have between 48 and 96 bass buttons and two or three treble reeds per key - they are lighter than 120 bass models, so more manageable for beginners or occasional players.

My own accordion is a Swiss Hohner Musette 120 bass, which is a very heavy lump of a thing, but with a glorious sound.