Ken Hopkins, from Comber, County Down, Northern Ireland, was famous for owning one of the world’s largest private collections of accordions. He owned 1,000 accordions of all types, makes and models, which literally took over his house. The collection included everything from the very earliest 19th Century accordions, also known as flutinas, right up to the digital accordions of recent times, plus concertinas and bandoneons.

A central heating engineer by profession, Ken’s lifelong hobby and passion was accordions, and his collection grew steadily over four decades. His collection included several rare instruments, such as one of Jimmy Shand’s original Shand Morinos and Will Starr’s special 4-row Shand Morino (now owned by Brandon McPhee).

Ken exhibited some of his collection at Caister, Blackpool and other accordion festivals many times, where he also performed. Although he never learned to read music Ken was a skilled player on piano and button accordions, and even the rare 1940s Uniform keyboard. He sold and repaired accordions, and had a great knowledge of the many models he owned.

In 2012 thieves targeted Ken’s home and stole 30 valuable accordions, but 12 were later recovered by the police in the Irish Republic. The photo on the right shows Ken with some of the returned accordions. Ten years later, in 2022, his house was again targeted and eleven accordions, valued at £35,000 were stolen. To date none has been recovered.

Ken’s accordions are featured extensively in Rob Howard‘s books “Vintage Accordions” and “Accordion: A Pictorial History“, and also “Accordion Anthology“. Rob took hundreds of photographs on several visits to his collection, where he was always made welcome.

Ken was well liked by his many friends. He was a widower with one son, and suffered for many years with Parkinsons Disease. In recent years the illness worsened considerably, and his health deteriorated. He passed away on November 29th, 2024 and was widely mourned by accordion players and enthusiasts across Ireland, Britain and Europe. R.I.P.