The first unisonoric accordions were built in Russia in the first half of the 1840s,[3] with chromaticism not appearing until the 1850s.

The first chromatic button accordion may have been constructed as early as 1850 by Franz Walther, in 1870 by Nikolai I. Belobodorev, or as late as 1891 by Georg Mirwald.

[3][6] Early chromatic button accordions were less popular than their diatonic counterpoints and unstandardized.

The modern chromatic button accordion, featuring the Stradella bass system, was patented in 1897 by Paolo Soprani, with the assistance of Mattia Beraldi and Raimondo Piatanesi.

Its production and sale by Paolo Soprani helped globally spread and standardize the chromatic button accordion.