Busato Accordions (and banjos)!

MichaelHorowitz

I've heard over the years that in addition to guitars, Busato produced Banjos and Accordions. I just did a little looking and found these interesting artifacts:



Model "reduced" the workshop BUSATO, Paris (circa 1950)
(un des plus petits accordéons du monde connu) (one of the smallest of the known world accordions)

So I guess he built BIG guitars and little accordions.....



Beautiful harmonéon the workshop BUSATO, Paris






CHEVIN Busato banjo guitar (mid 30's)

MichaelHorowitz

and the "bling" on the harmoneon looks very familiar!

Stackabones

I've never really wanted a 6-string banjo. I do now.

MichaelHorowitz

more photos of the banjo....

Elliot

Interesting how beautifully Art Nouveau these are, since by this time Art Deco was all the rage.

brandoneon

Michael Horowitz wrote:

I've heard over the years that in addition to guitars, Busato produced Banjos and Accordions. I just did a little looking and found these interesting artifacts:

Beautiful pictures! The harmoneon is actually kind of an odd instrument, in that it has the same keyboard layout for both hands (and without chord buttons on the left hand). The link between Busato and accordion manufacturing is Pierre Monichon (recently deceased), who in 1948 invented the harmoneon so that single note melodies could be played with both hands in a classical concert setting (being that there was some disdain for the accordion and its ability to play chords with single buttons). Monichon was the accordion professor to Busato's 2 daughters, and after some time Busato's brother-in-law immigrated to Paris and was put in charge of building harmoneon prototypes.

Michael Horowitz wrote:

So I guess he built BIG guitars and little accordions.....

He also made "normal" accordions (with 120 bass buttons) in addition to the harmoneon.

Nice post!

MichaelHorowitz

Here's another Busato accordion! :shock:

Ando

Holy cow, those are amazing looking instruments.