Trossingen, Germany
M. Hohner

Metal, wood, cardboard
ca.  1904
Width: 12 in; Depth 6.5 in; Height w/bell: 15.5 in; Diameter of bell rim: 5.75 in
Wind Instruments – Free Reeds

Inscription on green leather in white letters:  GOLD MEDAL / ST. LOUIS 1904 / Highest Award  –  STEEL BRONZE REEDS  –   M. HOHNER / ACCORDEON

This is a 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair Hohner “Best Made” free reed button accordion.   It consists of a one row, ten key treble side; a two lever bass side and a single air valve lever for expanding or contracting the bellows without sounding a note.  There are three black pull-out stops on top, metal corners on the green leather and black wooden casing & bellows, leather strap clasps, leather hand strap and leather thumb strap. The bellows are made of green and beige cardboard with a green clover leaf printed pattern and there is a rather large brass bell painted red inside, attached on the side.  A metal (brass) framed lithograph portrait of M. Hohner is on all sixteen corners with the inscription:  M. HOHNER  / HOHNER/ ACCORDEON / BEST MADE. 

This accordion is diatonic (single scale) with a single-action (bisonoric) keyboard, i.e. each button produces two notes: one when the bellows are pressed or pushed (closed) and another when the bellows are drawn or pulled (opened). Each button produces a different note on the push and the draw of the bellows. In this respect it operates like a harmonica.

Many credit Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, as the inventor of the accordion, in 1822. He called his invention the Handäoline.  However, the first instrument patented under the name “Accordion” is credited to Cyrill Demian, a musician from Vienna, in 1829.   Accordions are often used in folk music and ethnic music, particularly in German and Polish ethnic music.
Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG., is a company specializing in the manufacture of musical instruments, founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner (1833–1902) in Trossingen, Germany.   Hohner is identified especially with harmonicas and accordions. Matthias Hohner, who was originally a clockmaker, started making harmonicas (by hand) in 1857 with his wife and a single employee, with 650 made in the first year. Hohner harmonicas quickly became popular and during Matthias’ lifetime he built the largest harmonica factory in the world.

Resource: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christian-Friedrich-Ludwig-Buschmann