Many years ago when Ebay was in its infancy I remember seeing an accordion with a piano keyboard on each side. I saved the picture somewhere, but can't reach it at the moment and may have lost it.
I've never seen another one of these oddities until today. Here on Ebay in the UK is a Soprani Luttbeg.
As far as I can make out these accordions don't have a real name - so I propose that these are called Luttbeg Accordions after the inventor Max B. Luttbeg.
Max B. Luttbeg arrived in New York from Russia in the early 1900s. He was a famous wrestler and this picture of him is in the Library of Congress. Max is the one kneeling.
After he retired from wrestling he went on the vaudeville circuit playing accordion and also made his own improvements to accordions.
The patent for the 'Luttbeg Accordion' was filed in January 1931 in the US, and a further patent improving the system was submitted in January 1932.
As well as Soprani at least one other manufacturer made Luttbeg accordions as John Gaunt's site has pictures of two types of Soprani and also a Bertini. The site also claims that only 12 Luttbegs were ever made.
The reason that these accordions never caught on will be clear to anyone that plays the piano accordion. It's very hard to push the bellows at the same time as holding your hand in the right position to play a piano style keyboard.
It seems that Max Luttbeg himself recognised these problems and submitted another patent in 1939 - this time for a 36 button layout. Each button sounded a single note and complex chords could be played by pressing combinations of buttons. Sadly I don't know if any of these accordions were ever built.
If anybody has any further information on the Luttbeg accordions then please leave a comment.
Link: Soprani Luttbeg on Ebay
Link: Luttbeg Accordions on John Gault's site
Link: Max Luttbeg's Patents
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