More than a year ago, I wrote about a strange stand-up accordion that I found on eBay. I couldn’t find much information about it online, but there appeared to be a handful of them lurking around the country. This week, I got wind of another one: a Robotti Pianaccord that Bill Horton is selling on eBay. Here’s his description:
“It was passed down to me by my Italian grandfather. Unfortunately, he passed away before I got the story on it. Mine is fully functional, and I have enjoyed playing it… I have 2 names on mine. One is Robotti, the other is Pianaccord. I have not been able to find a whole lot of info on these at all… I contacted an appraiser from the antiques roadshow, and he said that the only one he had ever come across was bought by one of his friends as a decorative piece.”
Does anyone out there know more about the history behind these instruments? Are they all made by the same person? (This one has a “Robotti” nameplate, but the ones we saw previously said “Bonvicini”.) Leave a comment if you have any experience with one of these “stand-up” accordions.
3 Comments:
Squeezyboy’s covered these too: http://squeezyboy.blogs.com/squeezytunes/2007/09/bonvicini-accor.html
And you could even make your own! http://squeezyboy.blogs.com/squeezytunes/2007/09/convert-you-acc.html
Somebody brought a homemade one (made out of a poor little Hohner) to our local Vancouver Squeezebox Circle. The fan that ran it was pretty noisy.
peace bruce
by Bruce Triggs on February 24th, 2008
Yeah, I remember seeing that one on Squeezyboy’s site — it’s pretty identical to the Bonvicini we saw before. They look professionally made — not the sort of thing one could (easily) cobble together yourself — and I’m wondering how many were made.
by Chris on February 24th, 2008
I think there was quite a craze for “chord organs” back in the 60s & 70s. It seemed that every family had one back then (in the UK at least). Bontempi was the ubiquitous name over here.
I guess that these stand-up accordions were made by quite a few makers, but these must surely have been the deluxe end of the range. I must stress this is just guesswork though.
We need to keep researching these instruments.
by Squeezyboy on February 25th, 2008