Scans of British 78 rpm record labels up to ~1923.

WORK IN PROGRESS, OCT 2008.

This new page was begun in October 2008. The intention is to concentrate here, some of the bewildering variety of record labels which suddenly began to appear in this country from about 1908 onwards. There were more and ever more of them. Their proliferation was astonishing. The noted Discographer Dr. Rainer Lotz has estimated that possibly four hundred different labels appeared in Britain in the years 1908 – 1914. Before then, there were merely a handful of labels – perhaps eight, ten or a dozen. How on earth did this come about?

I think it goes something like this… In 1906, there was a General Election in Britain. For whatever reasons, the Liberal Party won a landslide majority in parliament. Therefore they considered themselves enfranchised to carry out their most treasured policies. One of them was ‘Free Trade’. I don’t know what the others were, and we don’t have to go into details on this – I don’t know anything about it anyway! – but it certainly meant that merchandise made in other countries could come into Britain without any import duty. Or perhaps with only a very small import duty, compared with before.

Now it so happened that Germany was the European Centre of the production of gramophone records. Way back in the late 1890s, when The Gramophone Company (later HMV) was set up – it was of course the first company to sell disc records here – their pressing factory was not in England but in Hanover, Germany. Emile Berliner, who developed the gramophone, was German, and it is said that he was apprehensive of the strong Trade Unions in Britain. If so, it must have been cheaper, or at least more convenient, to have British masters sent to Germany, pressed in Hanover, then shipped back for sale in this country. Other German companies soon evolved in order to make discs, and so the record-making industry became firmly based in Germany.

As long as merchandise coming into Britain had large Import Duties imposed on it, British industries had a clear field without undue competition. As far as the nascent gramophone record trade was concerned, this meant that records and the machines on which to play them, were relatively expensive. Some records were almost unbelievably expensive: certain operatic discs by the most famous singers like Nellie Melba, Adelina Patti, and Francesco Tamagno cost £1 each, or even a little more. As the average weekly wage for a skilled factory worker at that time was about £1.50, you can get some idea of the almost fabulous status of these stars! We do have to bear in mind, of course, that there was no radio, no television, no talking cinema in those days; the top opera singers were indeed the first ‘World Super-Stars’.

In the first years of the 20th century there was just The Gramophone Company; Zonophone (soon absorbed by the first-named); Columbia, Nicole, Pathé, Odeon, Neophone, and probably one or two other companies who were active up until the introduction of Free Trade.

It then began to change rather rapidly! Of course, not only cheap discs but also cheap gramophones were imported, in immense numbers. The gramophones often came in the form of a ‘metalwork kit’: just a motor (clockwork of course!), back-stay, horn, turntable, arm, sound-box, winding handle, brake lever, speed controller &c. Local firms over here made the wooden boxes in which these components were assembled. Some were perfunctory, and some were extremely robust & well-finished. Everything in between existed too. Was it Jake Graham, the famous dealer of Liverpool, who proudly declared himself: ‘The Solid Oak Gramophone King: no orange boxes!’? The application of a brightly-coloured transfer to the box or cabinet, preferably embodying an imaginative and inspiring name, completed the machine. Excelsior! New Era! Vulcan! Olympia! Those were the sort of names that resonated in those days, a century ago – and, I may be a silly old man, sorry, person: but I think they still resonate to some extent even in 2008. 8^)

On this page, there appears a thumbnail of the label on the left. Just click on it to see it larger; then click the back button to return here. I must emphasise that some of the scans are of very low quality. These may have been made some years ago, and we no longer have the disc to re-scan. And scanners have got a lot better too. The decision has been made, that it is better to have a rough idea of what the label looks like rather than none at all. Moreover, label designs changed in a bewildering fashion. You will see, for example, three ‘Mill-o-phone’ labels on this page, and all are completely and bafflingly different! We shall try to upgrade the poor quality scans as & when we can. Also, earlier scans, made in the days before broadband, just had to be made smaller in any case. Nowadays we have adopted 500 pixels as a standard label size, and about 200 Kb for a scan. A few years ago, such file sizes would have been unthinkable! The size of the centre hole will give you an idea of the label diameter.

Finally, we must re-state that we are only enthusiasts of 78 rpm history, not experts in it. And so any comments we may make alongside the labels can be highly conjectural on our part. And therefore probably wrong. However, some very expert Discographers have kindly added comments on what we have written over the years – and also donated labels scans, many extremely rare, for display on this site. We try very hard to ensure that proper credit is given. Arthur Badrock, William Dean-Myatt and Dr. Rainer Lotz are but three of the most eminent donors, but we are equally grateful to all who have sent material: and their names duly appear in the notes alongside each label. Where no credit is given, the label reposes in our own modest collection.

Very well then: let’s get going!

This is a test – Saturday 25th October.

Page started 24th October 2008.

Revised 28th Oct.