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"Hero" (英雄) toy/student accordion, model UC 100, with original box
Object/Artifact
A small Chinese toy/student piano-accordion. White/cream molded-plastic body with a nine-key piano-style treble keyboard (white keys) at the right end, three white bass/chord buttons on the lower front, and blue bellows; round sound holes pierce both sides. A blue textile carrying strap and handle/trim are fitted. The front is printed in red: "Hero" in script with a musical-staff flourish, the characters 英雄, "ACCORDION," and "中國製造 UC 100 MADE IN CHINA." Accompanied by its original illustrated box — green card printed with a yellow accordion and "Hero ACCORDION / MADE IN CHINA" — the lid bearing handwritten notations "2-11-71," "15.00," and "MTO."
2025.11.47
2025.11
Purchase
1971
1970s
Shanghai
People's Republic of China
Asia
Maker: "Hero" (英雄), a Chinese (Shanghai) maker of children's/student toy accordions; specific factory not named on the object. Model UC 100. Made in China (per the object's marks). Date: Produced by 1971. Purchased in 1971. The box's manuscript "2-11-71" (2 November 1971) gives an acquisition/sale terminus; Hero "UC"-series toy accordions are documented in production from circa 1960 through the 1970s. Manufacture most plausibly falls in the late 1960s–1971 window.
Accordion front — "Hero" / 英雄 / "ACCORDION" / "中國製造 UC 100 MADE IN CHINA." Box — "Hero ACCORDION / MADE IN CHINA"; manuscript "2-11-71," "15.00," "MTO."
Plastic
Cardboard
Materials: Molded plastic body (white/cream); paper/card bellows faced with blue cloth; metal/plastic keys and internal free reeds; textile carrying strap. Box: printed cardboard. Technique: Mass-produced molded-plastic toy accordion with internal free reeds and folded bellows; lithographed cardboard box.
Good
Shanghai
People's Republic of China
Asia
production
A Chinese-made "Hero" (英雄) toy/student accordion (model UC 100, Shanghai), an inexpensive children's instrument exported widely. Sold in Cuba at "15.00" pesos. Rather expensive considering that minimum income was less than 100 pesos. The notation "MTO" is unexplained (possibly owner's initials or a shop code).