1920s accordion

Soprani prewar accordion dating from the 1920's and was built in the Italian town of Castalfidardo by the well respected Paolo Soprani factory, which was founded in 1863 and is the worlds oldest accordion maker.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, which was really the golden age of the accordion, there were huge numbers of instruments being produced by many Italian and German factories. In fact, during this period, accordions were Italy's largest export! A lot of these were cheaply built student models, so weren’t worth a huge amount even when they were new.
Many people are now finding these old accordions in attics and basements, inheriting them from elderly friends or relatives, or picking them up at car boot sales etc.
Cosmetically, Pre-war accordions can be beautiful looking items. They generally feature a very attractive mother of pearl effect casework, and are usually highly decorated with imitation jewels, and sometimes have either pearl or ivory effect keys and buttons.
The general shape of these instruments is usually quite a bit squarer than modern accordions, which tend to feature a more rounded casework design. Some older models also feature a unique curved keyboard, and most pre-war accordions lack the large number of treble and bass couplers usually found on modern full size instruments. Usually, accordions of this era are all 120 bass models, as smaller, more compact versions weren’t generally introduced until the late 1950’s 1960’s or so.