'Collecting accordions became my dad's obsession'

BBC News

7 days ago

Known to many throughout Europe as "the accordion man" – Ken Hopkins from County Down dedicated decades of his life to collecting and restoring the instruments.At the time of his death last year, he had amassed what is thought to be one of the largest private collections of accordions in the world.His collection contains everything from early 19th century flutinas, up to the digital models of today.Now, about 750 of them are going under the hammer at a Belfast auction house priced from £10 up to a potential £5,000.Some of the more unusual items in the collection include an accordion coffee table and television, and an instrument rumoured to have been used to smuggle cash out of Colombia.
Family home was 'like an accordion museum'
Ken Hopkins' daughter Lisa Allen said the instruments had become an "obsession" for her father."He was a musician himself, an incredible accordionist, and he was well renowned throughout the accordion world, playing in bands for decades," she said."He started purchasing accordions, going to shows and auctions and it just escalated."He absolutely loved accordions and it became an obsession."
Mr Hopkins fell in love with the accordion at a young age, and met his first wife when her father gave him lessons.The instrument shaped his life.
Ms Allen said there were accordions lining every room of her father's Comber home.It took five truck loads to move them from the property to Ross's Auction House in Belfast."The house was just absolutely packed with them, five bedrooms upstairs with no room for anything else other than accordions," she said."You would arrive and there would be a coachload of people parading up and down just looking at the collection so it was like an accordion museum."
'I can't play a note'
Despite growing up around accordions, neither Lisa nor her siblings inherited her father's musical capabilities and after realising they did not have the space to house the collection, the decision was taken to sell it.
"It's bittersweet to see it go but I haven't a note in my head," Ms Allen said."I've had all the piano lessons, singing lessons, guitar lessons and we've had some amazing musicians at the house, bands in the living room, but I can't play a note."Music has really been a part of our lives, every birthday, every Christmas, every celebration but they need to be played."They should be played and it'll be lovely to think they'll be at somebody else's birthday, playing Happy Birthday and bring more joy."As they say, the music will go on."
Angus Clarke, managing director of Ross's Auctions, said sorting through the instruments had been a "mammoth task from start to finish"."It's very unusual to have a collection of this size," he said."We believe it to be the largest private collection of accordions in the world so it's not every day you get something through the door just like this."The sheer volume of accordions themselves – picking them up, the storage facilities for them has been a bit of a handling."Also we've had to educate ourselves a lot on accordions, it's been a great challenge."We've had people from all around the world getting in touch, it's amazing how many of them know about the auction. "In particular people in eastern Europe - they have a deep-rooted musical traditional with accordions."It's a bit of an unknown but early indications suggest the auction might realise upwards of £250,000."
Ms Allen said her dad would have loved the attention his collection was getting."He would love all this. He was really a showman and he enjoyed entertaining people so he would love to see how people are reacting to the collection."We've had people from Italy, America, just all over the world getting in touch. "Everyone knows dad and the collection and there are a lot of people who just want one of his accordions – nothing in particular just a piece of the Ken Hopkins collection which is nice."They've been telling us stories about him, and about some of the accordions and it's been lovely to know he was so well thought of."The rarity of Mr Hopkins' collection saw him targeted by thieves.In robberies at his home a decade apart he lost accordions worth several hundred thousands of pounds.In 2012, 12 of the stolen rare instruments where recovered on wasteland in County Meath in the Republic of Ireland.Speaking at the time, Mr Hopkins told the BBC the thefts were something "you got used to".The Ken Hopkins Accordion Collection auction ends on August 6