NEW BOOK "Mae West and The Count" - An Accordion History

[Count Guido Deiro]

Hello Accordionistas!

I am Guido, the son of Count Guido Pietro Deiro (1886-1950) the virtuoso that many of you will remember as "Deiro" the northern Italian nobleman who named, introduced and popularized the piano-accordion on three continents starting in 1907. I have just published a 332 page, illustrated, bio-novel entitled "Mae West and the Count - Love and Loss on the Vaudeville Stage", which intimately and factually recounts, not only the events surrounding the previously undisclosed torrid love affair and six year marriage of the actress Mae West to my father, but the history of the introduction of the piano-accordion. Some readers will find the truths revealed unsettling..others will find them a revelation. The book is available in all editions on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple IPod.

 

[JerryPH]

My contribution to your thread... CLICK HERE.

 

[JerryPH]

Would you be interested in seeing or possibly purchasing your fathers original accordion?  I am talking this one:



I believe I know where it still is today. BTW, do you play the accordion?

Just a small friendly note... 3 first posts and all 3 are promoting/selling the same book.  That is seen as being done poor taste at the very least and considered spamming on some boards.

Nice meeting you.

 

[Count Guido Deiro]

Jerry: Youll have to forgive me. Ive never written a book before, and I have never posted a message on any sort of forum, including this one. I wrote Mae West and the Count to honor my fathers contributions to the world of the accordion and to correct some long due baloney about who did what, to whom, and when. It goes a long way to setting some of Mae Wests incorrect history also. I thought putting announcements on an accordion blog wouldnt be desired and not criticized.  

As far as accordions go, Ive already donated the last of his Vaudeville played instruments to museums and a world champion. Such a find as the Guerinni you mention, if genuine, belongs in a collection. Now that you have advertised its availability, Im sure a collector will ring you up. I have to pass.  Guido


Would you be interested in seeing or possibly purchasing your fathers original accordion?  I am talking this one:



I believe I know where it still is today.  BTW, do you play the accordion?

Just a small friendly note... 3 first posts and all 3 are promoting/selling the same book.  That is seen as being done poor taste at the very least and considered spamming on some boards.

Nice meeting you.

 

[Tom]

I'll give the count the benefit of the doubt and consider it an honest mistake.

 

[Count Guido Deiro]

I'll give the count the benefit of the doubt and consider it an honest mistake.

Thank you Tom for your gracious acceptance of my apology to all on this forum for my multiple announcements of the book about  my father, the premiere piano-accordionist, Deiro, and the actress Mae West's associations. I am entirely sincere in that I am not a commercial person, or a "spammer'. I didn't know how else to reach accordion fans.  I consider my hand appropriately slapped.  Guido

 

[Tom]

Nessun problema Guido! I look forward to reading your book, it sounds interesting. I think your family has had a very interesting history and I have come across many of their transcriptions. I applaud you for your donations to keep the history available. Good luck with your projects, Tom

 

[Zevy]

Nessun problema Guido! I look forward to reading your book, it sounds interesting.   I think your family has had a very interesting history and I have come across many of their transcriptions.   I applaud you for your donations to keep the history available.  Good luck with your projects, Tom

Zei gezunt, Guido!

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi Guido jr.,

I had a look at the Guido Deiro org website, and read about the great accordion career of the Deiro accordionist family. 
I'm interested in his ties toch the San Francisco accordion industry around 1900.
Was he involved with the PA industry? 
Dit he work with Giuseppe Galleazzi in San Francisco? 

He played a 60 bass CBA in 1903, so why did he changed to PA later and promoted PA? 
Commercial reasons? 
Converting the pianists to becoming piano accordion teachers? 
Like Hohner did in 1920s Germany?

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi Guido,

Do you intend to become an active member of this accordion forum?
Or was it just a one night stand promoting a book?

Here is the 1903 photo of your ancestor with his 60 bass chromatic button accordion:
http://guidodeiro.org/lifestory.html

Is this your online bio ?
http://guidodeiro.org/sonofdeiro.html


Say hello from me to Roman Emperor Caligula,
Grtz from the slums in Belgium,
Stephen

 

[Count Guido Deiro]

Nessun problema Guido! I look forward to reading your book, it sounds interesting.   I think your family has had a very interesting history and I have come across many of their transcriptions.   I applaud you for your donations to keep the history available.  Good luck with your projects, Tom

Zei gezunt, Guido!

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]hela zevi!

ikh bin nisht a landsman, ober meyn step-tate iz geven aun azoy ikh hobn a tif respekt aun libe fun di idishe mentshn, zeyer minhgim aun .... di esnvarg.

gut gezunt[/font][/color]

---

Hi Guido,

Do you intend to become an active member of this accordion forum?
Or was it just a one night stand promoting a book?

Here is the 1903 photo of your ancestor with his 60 bass chromatic button accordion:
http://guidodeiro.org/lifestory.html

Is this your online bio ?
http://guidodeiro.org/sonofdeiro.html


Say hello from me to Roman Emperor Caligula,
Grtz from the slums in Belgium,
Stephen

Hello Stephen:

I havent been a player since my fathers passing. I found I couldnt live up to his expectations. I did construct the guidodeiro.org website and took further steps to have my fathers legacy publicized and the history of the piano-accordion corrected. Too many celebrity accordionists, starting with my Uncle Pietro had and were making claims that they had no right too.

First I donated all of my fathers recorded and sheet music and memorabilia to the Deiro Archive at the Graduate Center at City University of New Yorks  Then, I had Mel Bay publish an anthology of all my fathers compositions as he wrote and played them. 

I restored the first sound on film of the piano-accordion 1928 (YouTube), had Archeophone publish four double CDs with historical, illustrated,  liner notes of my fathers four decade career and co-operated with Ranco Accordions to manufacture a limited edition Guido Deiro Gold Pioneer concert acoustic accordion which was recently purchased by the virtuoso, Bernadette Zabawa.

I donated, with Pietros grand-daughter, early 1900s Guerinni accordions played by my father and uncle on stage to the World of Accordions museum in Superior, Wisconsin .

Last year I gave the remaining stage played Guido Deiro Guerinni to a young man whom I think is contributing enormously to the future of the piano-accordion, the three time world champion, Cory Pesaturo.

Finally, I wrote a screen play and the book Mae West and The Count to put a cap on my efforts to tell the accordion world that many of the attributions about the introduction, naming, popularization and modifications of the piano-accordion  taken by other players, such as Pietro, Magnante and Van Dam, to name a few, were unearned and in some case flat fabrications.

There has been no profit for me in any of these undertakings (books pay in pennies, not dollars) and I am not a commercial person...I am a man who believes in the truth and the obligations one has to ones family.

My best regards and thank you for giving me an opportunity to explain my actions,

Guido

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi Guido, 

Thanks for the info. 
So If you don't play the accordion, you have no intentions to stay a member on this forum for the next months? 

Too bad, I would have liked to learn more of the early career of your family member. 
Especially his transition from chromatic button accordion to piano accordion around 1903.
Why didn't he promote the chromatic button accordion in the USA?

I'm not going to ask questions about his bedtime activities with Mae West, but am more interested in his PA and CBA history. 

Grtz, 
Stephen

 

[Count Guido Deiro]

Hi Guido, 

Thanks for the info. 
So If you don't play the accordion, you have no intentions to stay a member on this forum for the next months? 

Too bad, I would have liked to learn more of the early career of your family member. 
Especially his transition from chromatic button accordion to piano accordion around 1903.
Why didn't he promote the chromatic button accordion in the USA?

I'm not going to ask questions about his bedtime activities with Mae West, but am more interested in his PA and CBA history. 

Grtz, 
Stephen

Hello again Stephen:

I am 82 years old and in failing health. I don't play anymore, but I do promote the accordion in any way I can.  Per esempio...I awarded the Guido Deiro Best Young Performer Award at the International Accordion Convention in Las Vegas annually, and I gave a presentation at last year's Museum of Making Music in California to a sold out audience. I do like to speak on the history of the the naming, introduction and popularization by my father of the piano-accordion in America. 

You have a healthy interest and many questions....the answers to them and many others you can find in the 332 page, illustrated book for just a few dollars in the e-book editions of Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. The hard cover and paperback books would be expense to ship to beautiful Belgium. Your curiosity is one reason why I wrote it.

Guido

 

[Deleted member 48]

I'll have a look at the table of contents of your book at Amazon. 
I hope the answers to my questions are in the book and not hidden deep down Mae West's cleavage.

My books on accordion history in Europe and Russia are a 100% about accordion and music. 

My kama sutra collection is on a separate book shelf.

I'm sure your book will find it's way to the readers. 

I already found some answers to my questions from accordion teachers in Europe. I have a pretty good knowledge of the Hohner PA promo history and marketing and the Italo-American accordion connections.

 

[Zevy]

Zei gezunt, Guido!

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]hela zevi!

ikh bin nisht a landsman, ober meyn step-tate iz geven aun azoy ikh hobn a tif respekt aun libe fun di idishe mentshn, zeyer minhgim aun .... di esnvarg.

gut gezunt[/font]

---

---

We gotta get together one of these days, Guidaleh!

 

[Count Guido Deiro]

I'll have a look at the table of contents of your book at Amazon.
I hope the answers to my questions are in the book and not hidden deep down Mae West's cleavage.

My books on accordion history in Europe and Russia are a 100% about accordion and music.

My kama sutra collection is on a separate book shelf.

I'm sure your book will find it's way to the readers.

I already found some answers to my questions from accordion teachers in Europe. I have a pretty good knowledge of the Hohner PA promo history and marketing and the Italo-American accordion connections.

And my book is about the REAL history of the naming introducing and popularizing of the piano-accordion in America by the only man who was ever billed as "The World's Greatest Accordionist" by impresarios, trade publications and the press of the day. He just happened to be married to Mae West...my father never let a pretty ankle go by without serious consideration. He married four beautiful women and was as popular in the first three decades of the nineteenth century as any "rock star" today.

You say your a published historian..yet you have to look up what Guido Deiro contributions were? You, and others who have bought the erroneous narratives written about the accordion in the United States and repeated it, are why I had to write and present to many accordion "experts" the unsettling truth. I guaranty you will see one hundred year old photos, show bills , reviews, interviews and newspaper articles that you have never heard of, or seen before. Yes, in addition to introducing the piano-accordion he was the Svengali that got Mae West onto the Vaudeville stage and that story was hidden by mutual consent. The revelations in the book about her marriage to my father, and his contributions toward her becoming a star, earned me an interview on PBS New York to be shown under "American Masters" in December.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Ill have a look at the table of contents of your book at Amazon.
I hope the answers to my questions are in the book and not hidden deep down Mae Wests cleavage.

My books on accordion history in Europe and Russia are a 100% about accordion and music.

My kama sutra collection is on a separate book shelf.

Im sure your book will find its way to the readers.

I already found some answers to my questions from accordion teachers in Europe. I have a pretty good knowledge of the Hohner PA promo history and marketing and the Italo-American accordion connections.

And my book is about the REAL history of the naming introducing and popularizing of the piano-accordion in America by the only man who was ever billed as The Worlds Greatest Accordionist by impresarios, trade publications and the press of the day. He just happened to be married to Mae West...my father never let a pretty ankle go by without serious consideration. He married four beautiful women and was as popular in the first three decades of the nineteenth century as any rock star today.

You say your a published historian..yet you have to look up what Guido Deiro contributions were? You, and others who have bought the erroneous narratives written about the accordion in the United States and repeated it, are why I had to write and present to many accordion experts the unsettling truth. I guaranty you will see one hundred year old photos, show bills , reviews, interviews and newspaper articles that you have never heard of, or seen before. Yes, in addition to introducing the piano-accordion he was the Svengali that got Mae West onto the Vaudeville stage and that story was hidden by mutual consent. The revelations in the book about her marriage to my father, and his contributions toward her becoming a star, earned me an interview on PBS New York to be shown under American Masters in December.

Guido,

Where did I say I am a published historian ???? I was referring to my book collections on the bookshelves.
Usually when people buy books in shops or online, they tend to refer to them as my books... Thats not an unusual terminology to use.
Please read my posts carefully.

Im aware of the virtuoso career of Guido Deiro and the story of the Deiro brothers.
http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/essays/whowasfirst.html
quote: [font=georgia,]The piano-accordion was probably invented in France around the mid-nineteenth century. The first patent of an accordion with a piano keyboard was made by Philippe Joseph Bouton of Paris in 1852. In 1880, piano-accordions with sixty-four bass and chord buttons for the left-hand were built by Tessio Jovani in Stradella, Italy. In 1890 a deluxe piano-accordion was built by Mariano Dallape and Company, also in Stradella, which featured a right-hand keyboard of three octaves and 112 left-hand buttons.[/font]
http://www.henrydoktorski.com/books/brothersdeiro.html

First, this is not a Mae West fanpage, this is an accordion forum, so you can expect members to be more interested in the accordion history than in the affairs Mae West had.
I understand it is a smart marketing tric to put a photo of Mae West in full battle dress on the cover, and Im sure the Mae West fans will thank you for that.

This guy is not falling into the honey trap (not this time...), my question is purely about the history of piano accordion and chromatic button accordion in the USA.

I think you should have separated the two subjects in two books, one on the accordion history, and an encyclopedia on Mae West.
This book doesnt look like a scientific work on accordion history. On Amazon it is adverted as a romance and vaudeville story. I think this is correct.

My accordion book collection covers (some of) the history of the developments of accordion in Europe, Russia, the USA and China. These books are written by scholars, university professors, ... people with a long professional career in the accordion world. Many of them from the classical music scene.
To call these peoples works erroneous narratives ?? (By the way, have you read these books?)

Guido Deiro billed as The Worlds Greatest Accordionist by impresarios, trade publications and the press of the day. ??
Maybe, but then ... by impresarios, trade and press, in short the commercial scene and business agents.

I can name hundreds of Russian early 20th century accordionists who were at least as good as Guido Deiro.
Do you have any idea how many accordion virtuosos Russia produced in the 19th and 20th century? I think you must count them in the tens of thousands...
Not only in Russia, also in Europe we had a lot of accordion virtuosos.

The Worlds Greatest Accordionist is an overblown title. In Belgium in the 1950s every jackass called himself the accordion world champion in the accordion competitions they had in pubs. In an average weekend, dozens were crowned the world champion, and we had a miss universe each time she went down on the jury. I spose it was the same in every country. Nothing new under the sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrammel_accordion
quote: The first written notice about the existence of such instruments are from the 1854 Industrial Exhibition in Munich. The Vienna accordion builder Matthäus Bauer was mentioned as one who showed instruments with piano keyboards, and one with a 3 row machine and accidentals, mentioned in combination with the piano accordion. It seems likely that it was unisonoric and chromatic. Matthäus Bauer then held a Vienna privilegium (Patent, 1851). Advertisements in newspapers of the time show pictures of various accordions, that were mostly diatonic, but also piano and 3-row B-Griff configurations.

The piano keyboard on accordions has been invented around the 1850s (half a century before Guido Deiro arrived in the USA. Dont you think anyone else traveled to the USA with such an instrument before 1905 or 1907 ? )
http://www.mimo-international.com/M...Scenario:,Scope:,Size:!n,Source:,Support:))))

There is a patent (brevet) by Philippe Joseph Bouton of 1852 in France of the piano accordion. Matthäus Bauer from Vienna, Austria, exhibited a piano accordion in 1854 in Vienna.

Guido Deiro was asked by Italian manufacturers, being an accordion virtuoso, to promote their new piano accordions in the USA, because they knew there were already a lot of piano playing potential customers. He was used in a marketing operation, like many other accordionists. That is why they choose to promote piano accordion instead of the better and more logical chromatic button accordion layout: M.O.N.E.Y.

Its true he was a virtuoso piano accordionist, we still have video and audio of his splendid acccordion performances.

Hohner used the same marketing trics in early 20th century Germany (when there was mass unemployment among pianists. The introduction of radio, grammophone and sound in cinemas were some of the reasons).
There was dispute and disagreemant inside the Hohner family and Hohner topmanagment in the 1910s and 1920s for the same reasons: what to promote: PA or CBA ? Again: M.O.N.E.Y. (more potential PA buying customers because of the number of pianists).

If you are really interested in the accordion history, you probably know that at conservatory level, teachers have left the piano accordion for the chromatic button accordion.
Every serious accordion student in higher education will prefer the CBA layout (when CBA teachers are available...)

I am most interested in your comments on this article I have posted several times here on the accordion forum (I am not the author of this article !! ) . Its about the fascinating history of the piano layout and why we prefer the chromatic button accordion over the piano accordion:
http://www.le-nouveau-clavier.fr/english/

Please read it through carefully, I would like to know your thoughts about this article.

As for Mae West, I suppose Guido Deiro may not have been the first man she squeezed, but maybe he was the first accordionist she squeezed.
Mae West also had a cunning career plan, and men played an essential role in her marketing plan.
She wasnt the first or the last woman to use men to mount the career ladder, but I understand the benefits must have been mutual.

 

[Deleted member 48]

History is never made by one person alone.
We all live in communities, and history is the result of social interaction between persons, groups, societies.


The truth is many persons were involved in the introduction and popularisation of the piano-accordion in the USA or in the world.
Guido Deiro certainly was one of them, and a very successfull accordion performer.
Both Guido Deiro and Pietro Deiro played their roles in the piano accordion history of the USA.

Already in 1871, a William D. Edgar of Ottawa, Kansas, USA, patented an improvement of the piano-accordion in America.
You can download the pdf of the patent.
You can see in figures 1 and 2 he uses the whole tone Janko layout (he changes the traditional piano layout of 7 white + 5 black keys, into an equal division of two rows with 6+6 whole tone layout):
https://patents.google.com/patent/US119335?oq=1871+accordion+edgar

http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/essays/magistrettideiro1.html
quote: [font=georgia,]Heres an old letter from B. Quattrociocche a pioneer accordion teacher and friend of Guido Deiros who wrote about his experience regarding the piano accordion and the Who Was First controversy. Guido and others were playing piano accordions in America long before Pietro. [/font]

[font=georgia,]It says : Guido AND OTHERS were playing piano accordions in America long before Pietro. [/font]


[font=georgia,]Another quote: [size=medium][font=georgia,]Ive seen ads by Pietro and others, If you know how to play the piano, you know 80% of how to play the piano accordion! What a cruel lie that was for selling lessons and instruments.[/font][/font][/size]

[font=georgia,][size=medium][font=georgia,]Indeed, a cruel lie to sell lessons and instruments. The teacher-dealer mechanism at work...[/font][/font][/size]
[font=georgia,][size=medium][font=georgia,]That is the true history of the accordion in the US of A, the dealers on top...[/font][/font][/size]


Do you also talk about the history of piano accordion manufacturer Augusto Iorio in America? 
See the 1907 photo in New York:
http://www.villasantostefano.com/villass/marco_felici/augusto_iorio/index.htm

And what about Giuseppe Galleazzi in San Francisco (1852-1945), and his many USA accordion patents from 1893 to 1913 ?

A very interesting book to read is the one by Gorka Hermosa: The accordion in the 19th century.
Here is the free pdf version of the book. 
You can see a picture of a 1853 patent from France on page 26 of this book, and you see the piano keyboard layout.
This has been given names from flutina to accordion, some were without basses, others had two or more basses.
http://www.gorkahermosa.com/web/img/publicaciones/Hermosa - The accordion in the 19th. century.pdf


On page 28 of this book, you can see a photo of a piano accordion, made by Dallapé in 1898.

The 19th century accordion maker Solari from Brussels, Belgium, also made several piano-accordions (some bisonoric, some unisonoric with a traditional piano keyboard layout):
https://www.canardfolk.be/Dossiers/Accordeons/Solari2face.jpg

Here is a gallery of historic Belgian accordions:
https://www.canardfolk.be/Dossiers/Accordeons/

 

[Count Guido Deiro]

Thank you for posting the historical information. I have read it, and as I have said, my interest is not in the instrument per se..but my fathers contributions to its naming, introduction and popularization starting in 1907 America. (I must mention that he also introduced the piano-accordion to the Antipodes, and that is included in the book with photos and newspaper articles from Australia and the Islands of the Pacific.)

You write in capitals that Biaggio Quatrociocche, whom I new well, said that OTHERS were playing the piano accordion at the same time as my father came to America. Biaggio never mentioned who these OTHERS were, and anyway none, if they existed, were playing on stage before my father, or their identities would be known.

Others mentioned in your post, such as Lou Barsuglia, were employed as teachers by my father and personal friends of mine. He and the composer and virtuoso, Galla-Rini, and my cousin, Pietro Deiro Jr. (Lee) contributed their recollections to my narrative. Lee and I became close in our seventies and at one time he would have like me to have moved to New York and taken over the Pietro Deiro Music Publishing Company. He freely admitted his fathers culpability in stealing Guidos thunder. Worse, I discovered that Pietro had been collecting royalties on my fathers compositions for years, and after Lee and I got to know each other, Lee sent me royalty checks till copyrights expired.

I first met Dick Contino when I was ten years old. His father brought him to mine to learn showmanship and stagecraft. I had a life long acquaintance with Dick until he passed away as he lived in Las Vegas near me. When I was a young boy I had aspirations to be a professional player, and Contino showed me how to play Lady of Spain with the bellow shake. Alas, I was so intimidated by my fathers ability ..I gave it up after losing an audition for an RKO-Paramount film.

Thank you for posting the Accordion News letters with their illuminating comments by such famed impresarios as Harry Weber.

I only want to follow my fathers death bed admonition to never forget his musical contributions and to tell the truth about who named the piano-accordion, and was the first to perform on stage, in concert, on records, on radio, and sound on film in the United States of America.

As far as the improvements or modifications. The extended keyboard is wrongly attributed to Art Van Dam who wasnt even born when my father made that modification and you can see it in his 1928 film on YouTube. The addition of the diminished fifth was my fathers improvement along with extended air bars for better bellows control. palm switches, etc.

One famous misrepresentation is that Charles Magnante was the first to play on radio. He was ten years old when my father played the accordion for the first time on the airwaves nationally on the first radio station to air music of any kind in America. Copies of the front page headlines in the Hearst news papers of the day are in the book along with my fathers picture . The headline read by millions: Nation hears the Accordion.

I wrote a novel about the arc of two famous celebrities intertwined lives based on facts and true events..not a biography, or a history in the academic sense.

Guido


History is never made by one person alone.
We all live in communities, and history is the result of social interaction between persons, groups, societies.


The truth is many persons were involved in the introduction and popularisation of the piano-accordion in the USA or in the world.
Guido Deiro certainly was one of them, and a very successfull accordion performer.
Both Guido Deiro and Pietro Deiro played their roles in the piano accordion history of the USA.

Already in 1871, a William D. Edgar of Ottawa, Kansas, USA, patented an improvement of the piano-accordion in America.
You can download the pdf of the patent.
You can see in figures 1 and 2 he uses the whole tone Janko layout (he changes the traditional piano layout of 7 white + 5 black keys, into an equal division of two rows with 6+6 whole tone layout):
https://patents.google.com/patent/US119335?oq=1871+accordion+edgar

http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/essays/magistrettideiro1.html
quote: [font=georgia,]Heres an old letter from B. Quattrociocche a pioneer accordion teacher and friend of Guido Deiros who wrote about his experience regarding the piano accordion and the Who Was First controversy. Guido and others were playing piano accordions in America long before Pietro. [/font]

[font=georgia,]It says : Guido AND OTHERS were playing piano accordions in America long before Pietro. [/font]


[font=georgia,]Another quote: [size=medium][font=georgia,]Ive seen ads by Pietro and others, If you know how to play the piano, you know 80% of how to play the piano accordion! What a cruel lie that was for selling lessons and instruments.[/font][/font][/size]

[font=georgia,][size=medium][font=georgia,]Indeed, a cruel lie to sell lessons and instruments. The teacher-dealer mechanism at work...[/font][/font][/size]
[font=georgia,][size=medium][font=georgia,]That is the true history of the accordion in the US of A, the dealers on top...[/font][/font][/size]


Do you also talk about the history of piano accordion manufacturer Augusto Iorio in America?
See the 1907 photo in New York:
http://www.villasantostefano.com/villass/marco_felici/augusto_iorio/index.htm

And what about Giuseppe Galleazzi in San Francisco (1852-1945), and his many USA accordion patents from 1893 to 1913 ?

A very interesting book to read is the one by Gorka Hermosa: The accordion in the 19th century.
Here is the free pdf version of the book.
You can see a picture of a 1853 patent from France on page 26 of this book, and you see the piano keyboard layout.
This has been given names from flutina to accordion, some were without basses, others had two or more basses.
http://www.gorkahermosa.com/web/img/publicaciones/Hermosa - The accordion in the 19th. century.pdf


On page 28 of this book, you can see a photo of a piano accordion, made by Dallapé in 1898.

The 19th century accordion maker Solari from Brussels, Belgium, also made several piano-accordions (some bisonoric, some unisonoric with a traditional piano keyboard layout):
https://www.canardfolk.be/Dossiers/Accordeons/Solari2face.jpg

Here is a gallery of historic Belgian accordions:
https://www.canardfolk.be/Dossiers/Accordeons/

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi Guido,

Thank you for all the information.
It's possible I will read your book later.
No doubt your father lead a passionate life as a musician and stage artist.

I am considering printing his 1903 photo in Metz with his 60 bass chromatic button accordion, because it is a very beautiful souvenir in honor to him and the CBA.
He will be remembered for a long time with this rich collection of documents, audio, video, your website and the books.

Grtz,
Deleted member 48