Triple Aeolina Harmonica, A / E / D
Maker
Charles Wheatstone
Date1830 ca.
Place MadeLondon, England, Europe
ModelTriple Aeolina
Serial No.None
SignedStamped on the left and center reed plates: C. WHEATSTONE (written sideways, reads bottom to top)Stamped on the right reed plate: C. WHEATSTONE 20 CONDUIT ST (written sideways, reads bottom to top)
DescriptionThree nickel-silver reed plates with 8 nickel-silver reeds each (24 reeds total). The reed plates are surrounded by an ivory frame. The three groups of blow-only reeds, are built to play chords in the tonic key of A, its subdominant, D, and dominant, E.
Wheatstone's aeolinas represent a very early use of the nickel-silver alloy in England. He produced only two- and three-chord aeolinas, fewer than a half-dozen of which are known to survive.
DimensionsLength: 98mm
Width: 48mm
Height: 4mm
ProvenancePurchased from Tony Bingham, London, England, 2003.
Published ReferencesBanks, Margaret Downie. "From the Four Winds . . . A Rare Triple 'olina and a Typotone Both Added to the Alan G. Bates Collection.” _The Trumpet Call (A Publication of Harmonica Collectors International)_ 5, Issue 3 (September 2003): 4-5.
----- Same article reprinted in _National Music Museum Newsletter_ 30, No. 3 (August 2003): 4-5.
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Alan G. Bates, 2003
Object number10434
On View
On view
