Vintage Hohner piano accordion with extra bass buttons, does anyone know what this model might be?

[MoreorlessMusic]

I was having a look at an auction website and saw this lovely Hohner listed. I am curious about the "extra" bass buttons. I keep counting eight rows rather than the usual 6, but maths was never my strong point!!! I wondered if any of you knew something about this model of accordion and what its age might be? I'm guessing 1920s or early 1930s, but I really have no idea.

Here is another view of the bass buttons. I wonder if the 7 slots with metal tabs that are below the air button are register selectors for the bass?

There are register selectors around the front, and slightly below the keyboard


What a beautiful looking instrument... and yes, I am a bit tempted!!

 

[JerryPH]

I may be wrong, but it looks like an early Morino, more like a 40's model. I say that because Morino did not start making accordions for Hohner until 1936 and the unique bass registers did not appear on Morino boxes until 1940-ish.

The bass is likely an early MIII Free Bass design, possibly at the expense of diminished chords.

An accordion of this age, unless it has been professionally maintained, will need a lot of service... the cost of which can likely easily exceed it's market value.

Its true value can only be determined (as we constantly say on all similar posts), by the condition of the inside more than how it looks all nice and cleaned up outside. I will say that it likely will need good amount of work. The bellows need replacement, that alone is several hundred dollars right there.

As historical piece, this accordion may have value to those that appreciate a little Hohner history, less so for pretty everyone else.

EDIT: The more I look at it, the more little things I see. The beautiful mother of pearl grill and inlays. The break on the bottom, it's piece missing, the additional black section of the bass side looking like an add-on as registers for the bass side (they're traditionally just 2 registers), the rounded slider on the back of the keyboard, the long sliders on the back and top of the keyboard... would be interesting to see if that is for 8 registers or 4 registers repeated twice for convenience (my vote is on them being repeated).

Almost looks like a developmental or beta design, Hohner had a lot of those over the years.

 

[dak]

I may be wrong, but it looks like an early Morino, more like a 40's model. I say that because Morino did not start making accordions for Hohner until 1936 and the unique bass registers did not appear on Morino boxes until 1940-ish.

The bass is likely an early MIII Free Bass design, possibly at the expense of diminished chords.

Morino did that with some later Artiste designs, but this one is older. The image quality is not quite good enough, but I think that the inner two rows of buttons have markedly less depth above the board. That would make it likely that we are not talking about an MIII free bass but about "baritone basses" that only access the chord octave reeds (leaving the 12 bass notes alone which you need to play using the Stradella bass rows), arranged in Jankó alternating style, probably with the lower note buttons towards the bottom of the instrument. This was an arrangement Morino cooked up in the 1920s I think.

While quint basses could also use 8 rows, they weren't there yet and anyway not a Hohner thing. And the regular MIII arrangement (which required a second mechanical access path to the bass octave) came up later.

An accordion of this age, unless it has been professionally maintained, will need a lot of service... the cost of which can likely easily exceed it's market value.

Its true value can only be determined (as we constantly say on all similar posts), by the condition of the inside more than how it looks all nice and cleaned up outside. I will say that it likely will need good amount of work. The bellows need replacement, that alone is several hundred dollars right there.

As historical piece, this accordion may have value to those that appreciate a little Hohner history, less so for pretty everyone else.

EDIT: The more I look at it, the more little things I see. The beautiful mother of pearl grill and inlays. The break on the bottom, it's piece missing, the additional black section of the bass side looking like an add-on as registers for the bass side (they're traditionally just 2 registers),

Possibly the upper octave for the bass reeds and the chord reeds, respectively. The "additional black section" looks like it has been added long after the initial completion of the instrument, probably because a piece of the mother-of-pearl patterned celluloid broke off or was ruined. I rather doubt that the registers came as an add-on after the shell was already completed.

the rounded slider on the back of the keyboard, the long sliders on the back and top of the keyboard... would be interesting to see if that is for 8 registers or 4 registers repeated twice for convenience (my vote is on them being repeated).

Almost looks like a developmental or beta design, Hohner had a lot of those over the years.

Morino cranked out a whole lot of one-of-a-kind accordions over the years even under the Hohner label (when he was still in Geneva instead of Trossingen, it was not surprising that he built more singleton instruments than stock ones).

At any rate it is more than likely that even with this instrument restored to full glory, it would take a player considerable time to learn dealing with those 8 rows of basses, whatever they actually may be…

 

[Dingo40]

I keep counting eight rows rather than the usual 6,

The bass is likely an early MIII Free Bass design, possibly at the expense of diminished chords.

Yes, I too was wondering if it could be an early free bass model

 

[MoreorlessMusic]

I may be wrong, but it looks like an early Morino, more like a 40's model. I say that because Morino did not start making accordions for Hohner until 1936 and the unique bass registers did not appear on Morino boxes until 1940-ish.

The bass is likely an early MIII Free Bass design, possibly at the expense of diminished chords.

An accordion of this age, unless it has been professionally maintained, will need a lot of service... the cost of which can likely easily exceed it's market value.

Its true value can only be determined (as we constantly say on all similar posts), by the condition of the inside more than how it looks all nice and cleaned up outside. I will say that it likely will need good amount of work. The bellows need replacement, that alone is several hundred dollars right there.

As historical piece, this accordion may have value to those that appreciate a little Hohner history, less so for pretty everyone else.

EDIT: The more I look at it, the more little things I see. The beautiful mother of pearl grill and inlays. The break on the bottom, it's piece missing, the additional black section of the bass side looking like an add-on as registers for the bass side (they're traditionally just 2 registers), the rounded slider on the back of the keyboard, the long sliders on the back and top of the keyboard... would be interesting to see if that is for 8 registers or 4 registers repeated twice for convenience (my vote is on them being repeated).

Almost looks like a developmental or beta design, Hohner had a lot of those over the years.

Jerry, thank you for your thoughts about this. I had a look for early Hohner Morino accordions after reading your comment, and found one that is very, very similar on the website of the Akkordeon Museum in Switzerland. https://akkordeon-museum.ch/hohner-morino-1930/
This one was thought to be from around 1932. The museum has photos of the inside of the instrument as well as the exterior views and it is a real work of art. The instrument at the museum is MMML and I notice 7 bass rows and a cassotto.

 

[MoreorlessMusic]

Morino did that with some later Artiste designs, but this one is older. The image quality is not quite good enough, but I think that the inner two rows of buttons have markedly less depth above the board. That would make it likely that we are not talking about an MIII free bass but about "baritone basses" that only access the chord octave reeds (leaving the 12 bass notes alone which you need to play using the Stradella bass rows), arranged in Jankó alternating style, probably with the lower note buttons towards the bottom of the instrument. This was an arrangement Morino cooked up in the 1920s I think.

While quint basses could also use 8 rows, they weren't there yet and anyway not a Hohner thing. And the regular MIII arrangement (which required a second mechanical access path to the bass octave) came up later.


Possibly the upper octave for the bass reeds and the chord reeds, respectively. The "additional black section" looks like it has been added long after the initial completion of the instrument, probably because a piece of the mother-of-pearl patterned celluloid broke off or was ruined. I rather doubt that the registers came as an add-on after the shell was already completed.

Morino cranked out a whole lot of one-of-a-kind accordions over the years even under the Hohner label (when he was still in Geneva instead of Trossingen, it was not surprising that he built more singleton instruments than stock ones).

At any rate it is more than likely that even with this instrument restored to full glory, it would take a player considerable time to learn dealing with those 8 rows of basses, whatever they actually may be…

Dak, thank you for your observations. As I mentioned in my reply to JerryPH I was excited to find a very similar accordion to this one on the website of the Akkordeon Museum in Switzerland, and that one was made by Morino around 1932 shortly after he started working at Hohner. The museum one has 7 rows of bass buttons.

I should have posted a higher resolution version of the photo than I did. On a slightly better image I think that the bass buttons on the inner two rows probably have about the same height above the board as the rest of them.

I would love to solve the riddle of what notes those bass buttons play!

 

[tcabot]

Early Morino, but well before 1940s, imho. More likely 20s or early 30s?

I'm drooling like a Pavlov's dog looking at this little beauty. You've got to show us some pics inside the box & close up of the reeds.

Exceptional accordions, those early Morinos.

Here's one supposedly from the 20s in red celluloid.

Hohner Morino (047)

Støtte til harmonika musik

harmonikafond.dyremose.com

 

[dak]

I should have posted a higher resolution version of the photo than I did.

The website boils down resolution anyway I think, so to preserve detail, you should crop your high resolution version to an image small enough that the website is not tempted to scale the resulting image down further.

 

[dak]

Early Morino, but well before 1940s, imho. More likely 20s or early 30s?

I'm drooling like a Pavlov's dog looking at this little beauty. You've got to show us some pics inside the box & close up of the reeds.

Exceptional accordions, those early Morinos.

Here's one supposedly from the 20s in red celluloid.

Hohner Morino (047)

Støtte til harmonika musik

harmonikafond.dyremose.com

The caption says "Free bass in 2 rows, full tone scale, - additionally 6 normal standard bass rows.", just like I proposed being the case for the instrument under discussion.

I can even post a score extract intended for this particular kind of instrument offering "baritone basses" (the two rows only cover the chord reeds, not the bass octave).

 

[JerryPH]

Morino did that with some later Artiste designs, but this one is older. The image quality is not quite good enough, but I think that the inner two rows of buttons have markedly less depth above the board. That would make it likely that we are not talking about an MIII free bass but about "baritone basses" that only access the chord octave reeds (leaving the 12 bass notes alone which you need to play using the Stradella bass rows), arranged in Jankó alternating style, probably with the lower note buttons towards the bottom of the instrument. This was an arrangement Morino cooked up in the 1920s I think.

Morino started to work at Hohner from 1936, that much is documented fact, so if that accordion was a 20’s Morino, it’s a Dallapé because that is where Morino was before being convinced to move to Hohner. I sincerely doubt this is a “Dallapė” because of the Hohner badge on it and it has a bass design well past a standard Stradella design, so I cannot place this model earlier than 1936.

I personally could not tell you for sure what the bass design is without playing it.

 

[dak]

Morino started to work at Hohner from 1936, that much is documented fact, so if that accordion was a 20’s Morino,

That is not what I said. I said that Morino cooked up the baritone bass scheme in the 1920s, not that this instrument was from the 1920s.

it’s a Dallapé because that is where Morino was before being convinced to move to Hohner.

Now you are confusing Morino with Gola. Morino never worked at Dallapé but instead had a workshop of his own in Geneva. When his business partner pulled a fast one on him and absconded with pretty much the whole inventory, Morino was left stranded in dire straits. It was then that Hohner made him an offer that he was in no situation to refuse, so he moved to Trossingen in 1928.

I sincerely doubt this is a “Dallapė” because of the Hohner badge on it and it has a bass design well past a standard Stradella design, so I cannot place this model earlier than 1936.

I personally could not tell you for sure what the bass design is without playing it.

"Baritone basses" are reasonably well documented. Apart from the 6+6 layout presumably used here, there also is a 7+5 layout for piano players that has fewer buttons in the inner row corresponding to "black keys". Maurice Thöni's duo partner Achermann as well as his daughter Jeanne Thöni played instruments with baritone basses in this piano-style arrangement.

 

[tcabot]

Now you are confusing Morino with Gola.

Wait, so Morino and Gola were two different people?

 

[dak]

Wait, so Morino and Gola were two different people?

The fomer was a learnt carpenter. The latter was a learnt accordion builder. There is a reason "Morino" models gained 3+ lbs of weight when construction and production was moved to Excelsior after Morino's demise.