Scans of British 78 rpm record labels.

All of us 78 rpm record fans enjoy, above all, listening to our discs, right? But it is also interesting, sometimes, just to look at the labels of 78s, be they common, or – better still! – rare!

Below are links to .jpgs of several hundred labels. Alas, many of them are in very poor condition. This is because (a) the only example of a label I have is in bad shape; (b) earlier scans I made were with an old scanner, not very good. Or both. And probably I don’t have the records any longer, so a better scan cannot be made. But still: a faded, dilapidated scan of a rarity like a ‘Neptune Record’ is better than no scan at all?

The noted discographer Dr. Rainer Lotz of Germany, advised me several years ago (when this page was first started), to adopt ‘the broad approach’ to what constituted a ‘British’ record. I was very happy to adopt his wise counsel, as he set it out in his superb “Discography” ‘German Ragtime’ (Storyville, 1985). I quote from Rainer’s introduction, only changing ‘Germany’ to ‘Britain’:

“… this [web-page] deals not only with items actually recorded in Britain, but also with:

- all items manufactured in Britain irrespective of the country of recording;

- all items manufactured in Britain irrespective of the country of destination, i.e. even series made exclusively for export;

- all items which, although recorded in Britain, have never been available on media made in Britain.”

To which I can add very little, except: - all items that were sold in Britain, even though they were recorded & manufactured elsewhere. E.g. the single-sided Imperial discs and Edison Diamond Discs, both of which were recorded & manufactured in the U.S.A. and then imported to this country.

Ironically, these two special cases are by an incalculable margin outweighed by the number of records that were recorded and pressed in Germany, and imported to Britain during the “European-based Gramophone Boom”, which occurred about 1908 – 1914. This period is of great interest to many enthusiasts, and no apology is made for their predominance here. Literally hundreds of labels are to be found in this short but fascinating time period!

Accordingly, no especial attempt is made here to illustrate labels much after the mid-1930s, and hardly at all for those existing after World War II (1939-1945). In any case, these are very well covered by many websites.

(Still, a number of exceptions exist below which violate the above rules… hopefully these will gradually be rectified, and assigned to the ‘World Wide Labels’ web-page. Also, many of the descriptions should have been revised as another example of the label was added, but I had to give up on that one as ‘painting the Forth Bridge’, sorry!)

CAUTION! Unless otherwise credited, all dates, attributions and opinions are those of the author, and may be incorrect. Also, I have made every attempt to give proper credit to the kind and generous people who have donated scans for use on this website; and also to those have made comments & clarifications on my often muddled notes. If I have made any error or omission, please let me know, and I will correct the entry as soon as possible. Thank you all very much!

When new labels are added (including world-wide ones), they are added here, at the top of the list, printed in dark green; this saves you having to trawl through the whole lot to find the new ones. After some time, they are shifted to their correct page and alphabetical position.

British Labels A - I.

ACO G-15650 A cheaper label manufactured by Vocalion (Aeolian COmpany); it was around from about 1922 to 1927. The label is very nice, a kind of ‘inverse design’ of the basic Vocalion label. Earlier issues used the smaller size label (nominally 3” (7.5cm)) but later the larger (3.5” (8.9cm) size was used, this illustration being one such. By courtesy of Dave Parsons).

Actuelle 11280 British Actuelle began about 1920 and finished in 1928. The ‘popular’ catalogue series began as such at the very ‘binary-looking number’ of 10101; apparently 10100 was a dealer promotion disc. There were about 1,200 issues in this series! None, of course, could ever be described as common; quite a few of the Jazz items are only known by one or two copies! Just seeing any Actuelle in a junk-pile used to ‘make the day’ for us is the days when there were such things!

Actuelle 11349 A British Actuelle of 1926. The combination of pink, green and gold filigree makes them hard to scan.

Actuelle 15167 Just to underline the perversity of this label, here is a British dance band recording dating from about 1923, but in the 15000 series. The diameter of this record is 11.25” (28.6cm). Don’t ask me what diameter any other 15000s are: this is the only one I’ve ever found in nearly 50 years of messing around with 78s!

Aerial B-3 An incredible rarity. Akin to the first thin unbreakable Duophones of 1927 (see below), these were produced by that same company; but who for, or where they were to be sold, is unknown. Only a handful are known. By courtesy of Arthur Badrock. On 29th June 2004, Eddie Shaw kindly pointed out that I have inadvertently quoted the matrix number (U-2128) as a catalogue number! The cat. no. is in fact B-3, and the link has been amended accordingly.

Aerona 187 These were manufactured for sale in Australia. The ‘DC’ master prefix indicates that they are a (British) Crystalate product, 7” (18cm) diameter, and closely related to Victory, q.v. (as Rust says…) below; and dating from around 1928. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Albion 1112B Gramophone Boom.

Apollo 20 Gramophone Boom

Ariel K-312 Gramophone Boom. A different series to those shown below. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Ariel 40337 Gramophone Boom. Sold by Graves, a department store in Sheffield that did mail order: a kind of micro-Sears Roebuck. Mind you, the label carried on until about 1936!

Ariel 14423 Gramophone Boom. A smaller size label of a good cakewalk tune.

Ariel 337 Here’s an amazing Ariel! I’ve seen scores – probably hundreds – of Ariels over the past forty-odd years. ALL of them had brown labels with gold printing, substantially the same label design. They were around from maybe 1912 to 1937. But here is a BLUE Ariel, with a different sort of label. The title indicates that it belongs to c. 1919. It looks as though it’s pasted over something else… A great oddity. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Ariel 3557 I had not been sure that Ariel continued through the 1914-18 War, but this record seemed to prove it. By this issue, they were being produced for Graves by the Zonophone wing of HMV. The master of this side is y20535e (I think: it was hard to read, but certainly y20xxxe) which would give a date in late 1916. Their label, as you will see, was to remain pretty constant over the years. However, it does not necessarily mean that a disc bearing a 1916 master was issued in that year, of course! More information is necessary!

Ariel Z4494 Also issued on a Parlophone R500 series, this roughly 1930 Ariel bears masters recorded in Australia, an A200 series. British Parlophone masters were in an E four figure series. Ariel continued until 1936, still being pressed by Parlophone. The appearance of an Ariel with a ‘modern’ eccentric run-off groove is quite disconcerting, on the rare occasions on which the later discs turn up!

Ariel 4392 There are already a lot of Ariel labels up here, but what the heck. This is the Joe Venuti OKeh, and as they were produced by Columbia at the time, the laminated pressings are really good; almost as good as the music, actually.

Arrow A-53 Gramophone Boom. On 9th August 2006, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: This is from Beka 555 (matrix 41597), rev; from Beka 526 (matrix 41529) (from Frank Andrews).

Arrow A-137 Gramophone Boom. A different colour to the scan already here.

Beatall 373 Gramophone Boom.

Beka 48 Gramophone Boom.

Beka Grand 676 The Gramophone Boom. The German company Beka ended up being established in Britain in its own right. Having British managers and directors, they even survived well into the Great War, but finally were taken over following an Act of Parliament which outlawed ‘Trading with the enemy’. This disc, however, is well pre-war; about 1912. By courtesy of Dave Parsons. On 9th August 2006, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: This was issued April 1913 (from Frank Andrews).

Beka Grand 708 The Gramophone Boom. This Beka, contrary to 676 shown nearby, claims to be of All British manufacture. True? Who knows! By courtesy of Dave Parsons. On 9th August 2006, Williams Dean-Myatt kindly commented: This was issued June 1913 (from Frank Andrews) Only he would know whether this is really all British.

Belcanto 5131 Gramophone Boom.

Belcanto 5326 Gramophone Boom. It’s the same design, but one can’t really have too many of these beautiful labels, can one?

Bell Disc 6 This is an Edison Bell product, not a German stencil. C.1910

Bell Disc 233 This one is later: green with gold lettering.

Bell Disc 488 By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Beltona 120 This is the very rare ‘first incarnation’ of the Beltona label, William Dean-Myatt has kindly provided the following details as well as this scan. (Incidentally I would mention here that one of Bill’s major discographical projects has been on the Beltona label – which has an unusually complex history. See his website for more details: www.beltonaproject.co.uk ) Bill only knows of three examples of this label:

“THE BURLINGTON OCTETTE”

113 3038 Whispering

3041 You Made Me Happy For A While

(Both these sides are on Popular P-1114)

“STAR” HARMONISERS (as shown here)

120 3078 Borneo

I’d Love To Fall Asleep And Wake Up In My Mammy’s Arms

(Both these sides are on Popular P-1135 as ‘Premier Hamonists’)

BILLY WHITLOCK, xylophone or bells

150 728x On The Lake

614x Fairy Kisses

Side 1 from Aco G-15090 (C-325) via Guardsman 575 (as Fred White)

Side 2 from Aco G-15106 (C-338) via Guardsman 664 (as Fred White)

Bill goes on to say: “I think the material on the first two records was made about 1920/21, whilst the material on the third was recorded about 1915/16 (I don’t know much about dating these). As I said, after the most extensive research into the Beltona label (I’ve reconstructed the entire catalog of some 3000 x 78s) I still can’t find out anything about what market these Beltonas were intended for. With one turning up in Australia (120 belongs to Don Taylor in Tasmania), one in France and one in Britain, it’s hard to know where they were sold. I know that John G. Murdoch & Co. Ltd., to whom the label belonged, had had an agent in Australia since the 1880s, but extensive enquiries have failed to reveal any further information. It’s hard to believe that 50 (let alone 150) issues were made – where are they all?” By courtesy of Don Taylor and William Dean-Myatt.

Beltona 666 Like Coliseum, this was a Vocalion-produced label. It began at 101 around 1922 but then has a red-and-cream colour scheme. These colours were soon abandoned, and the ‘familiar’ greeny label appeared. I put ‘familiar’ in quotes because much as we would like to keep finding Beltona records, they are consistently scarce! Later in the 1920s the label passed from the province of Vocalion to Edison Bell, with at least one label re-design. During its Edison Bell tenure it was transmuted into a vessel for Scottish material. From thence it proceeded to Decca (~1934) and carried on with its Scottish connection right up until the end of 78s in 1959! (And doubtless beyond…)

Beltona 1541 When labels are unusual – or simply look very nice! – we can’t resist having more than one example, so here is another gorgeous red, gold and white label from the period when Beltona were pressed by Edison Bell. Circa 1931. By courtesy of Danny Letham. On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Bob Smith. Recorded Peckham, April 1930.  This record was reputed to have sold 60,000 copies. Certainly it is one of the easiest Beltonas to find.  It must have amused the purchasers as every copy I've ever seen has been played to death

Beltona 1607 This isn’t your ‘common-or-garden’ Beltona; not at all; it’s from a very rare period around 1931 when Beltona records were produced by Edison Bell., and producing solely Scottish material (which it continued to do for at least another 25 years…) This record would have – indeed has had – collectors of very rare British Dance Bands drooling! You almost never see Beltona records with catalogue numbers over 1,000! On 27-04-03 Bill Dean-Myatt kindly added that Bob Smith played drums, banjo and hammered dulcimer. He was born in Hamilton, Scotland on 13th April 1885. He ran local dance bands and recorded extensively for Beltona. Fram at east 1933 until 1947 he had a shop that sold bicycles, photographic information and gramophone records. He died Glasgow, 19th March 1947.

Beltona 1761 A label re-design, and a much smaller size of label, as the centre hole shows. But still, I think, in the Edison Bell Period. By courtesy of Danny Letham. On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: James Hiddlestone, .  Recorded Peckham 15/16 October 1931.  He was a railwayman from Rutherglen, Glasgow, who had won prizes in several mouth-organ competitions

Beltona 1841 Another similar one. By courtesy of Danny Letham. On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Harry Gordon & Jack Holden. Recorded Peckham, February 1932.  Gordon from Aberdeen (1893-1957) recorded 160 sides for Beltona (He also recorded for Actuelle & Parlophone) and was their best selling pre-war artist.  As popular in Scotland, if not more so, as Fyffe and Lauder.  Jack Holden (1893-1955) was Gordon's usual straight man, but was actually a 'serious' actor.  (I know lots about Gordon)

Beltona 2111 For all that these Scottish records are hard to find, they certainly kept up a good flow of issues: the catalogue numbers are marching on quite quickly. This one may now be from the early part of the Decca period. Decca took over Edison Bell in 1933. By courtesy of Danny Letham. On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Robert Reid (1895-1965). Recorded Edinburgh, late 1933/early 1934.One of the great pipers of the 20th. Century.  Won dozens of prizes for his piping. Had a very adventurous lst. World War in the Highland Light Infantry, and was a Sergeant Major with the Royal Artillery in W.W.II. (I know much more about Reid)

Beltona BL-2396 Now a BL- prefix has arrived, and quite a large jump in time… The copyright legend includes a reference to ‘copying’; this wording did not appear, I believe, until after 1945. Before then, the ability – of the general public at any rate - to copy records was virtually unknown. By courtesy of Danny Letham. On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Jimmy Shand. Recorded London, Jan/Feb 1939

Beltona BL-6184-a

Beltona BL-6184-b Danny Letham kindly sent both sides of this disc as they are printed in different colours, and only the ‘B’ side actually carries the suffix! Decca master numbers at around DR-12100 would indicate a date of ~1948. This ‘new’ 6000 series was presumably reserved for Scottish Country Dance material. By courtesy of Danny Letham. On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Tim Wright. Recorded London, 5th. April 1948. He died in 1960

On 14th July 2004, William Dean-Myatt also made the general comment: Beltona records belonged to John G. Murdoch & Co. Ltd. Their first contract recording company was Vocalion, the Edison Bell Winner.  When Winner went bankrupt they were succeeded in quick succession by three different outfits, but about July/August 1933 the recording and pressings was taken over by the Crystalate Company who were, in turn, taken over by Decca in March 1937.  Decca continued with the recording and pressing until February 1941 when Murdochs got into financial trouble and passed the trade name over to Decca who carried on with the recording and pressing until the labels end. The BL prefix was introduced at BL-2446 and BL-6182 at the end of 1941, any earlier records that were re-pressed had the prefix added.  Its all a bit more complicated than this of course, but there's a limited to how much info' the layman wants.

If you have any Beltona records, and would like to help William Dean-Myatt with his project, please check out Bills’ website! There, apart from much more information on this fascinating label, you’ll find a list of Beltona numbers for which Bill still needs some information. If you have any of these, even just one, please email Bill with the details he requires. Many thanks! Email Bill via: www.beltonaproject.co.uk

Besttone 167 Gramophone Boom. What is the significance of ‘Rifanco Brand’ and ‘Marble Brand’? Another of these inscrutable 1910-1914 labels. It’s rare though; I’ve never found one after nearly 50 years.

Beta 360 These were made (rather obviously) for export to Australia by Edison Bell. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Bob 288 “A rare Scots label from before 1914. George “Pamby” Dick (1864-1942) of Edinburgh was one of the best Scottish melodeon players. This particular item used masters produced by the German ISI Company in March 1913; it was also issued on the American label “Symphony Concert Record”, which was a rare thing. They issued items recorded in London by a Scottish artist, which were pressed in Germany and shipped to the States to be sold for $1. These masters also appeared in Britain on Invicta.” Scan and comments by courtesy of William Dean-Myatt.

Bouwmeester 474 Dating from about 1923, this British made record was presumably made for sale in the Netherlands. Its British equivalent is probably the quite rare Scala-Ideal record. The label has a slightly different design and colours, but the underlying concept is the same. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

BRC B-146 This is a new label to us. It has the ‘look of the early 1930s’ and of British Homophone… can anyone help with more info., please? By courtesy of Mike Jones. On 9th August 2006, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: I have one of these, BILLY COTTON AND HIS BAND:

R-3450 I promise you B.R.C. B-103

R-3451 I have eyes B.R.C. B-103

This comes from Rex 9529 recorded 3rd. April 1939. Also, Steven Walker kindly commented that this was by far the highest catalogue number he had ever seen. And that, as usual, very obscure labels, thought only to have existed briefly, can still surprise us by producing catalogue numbers far beyond those we expected! Anyhow, I was way out in my estimate of early 30s… (NF).

Britannic 5372 This is the proud precursor of the other style of Britannic as shown below. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Britannic 2330 Gramophone Boom.

Britannic 115 Gramophone Boom.

Britannic 1212 Gramophone Boom. I left the original bad scan here because the implication is, that if there were catalogue numbers like 115, 1212 and 2330 in use on what is essentially the same label, are we to believe that over TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED Britannic records were issued in their own short period? This cannot possibly be the case, surely. More likely is that blocks of numbers were used for different kinds of repertoire.

Brunswick 2438 This will be a ‘short survey’ of Brunswick popular issues in Britain! The earliest Brunswick issues are extremely rare! I have never ever found one. They bore the same catalogue numbers as their American counterparts, but it is inconceivable that every U.S. Brunswick was issued here. This is a really ‘sober’ design, but beautiful in its austere dignity! 1923.

Brunswick 3215 This is the second type of Brunswick Cliftophone label. The origin of the word Cliftophone is not known to me. John Hobbs of Nottingham has suggested that a well-known gramophone shop in Clifton Street, Nottingham, gave this name to a type of machine it produced or designed, which was taken up, possibly by Chappells, and manufactured as the Cliftophone. In these machines, the sound-box was mounted at a shallow angle to the record, and arranged rather like that for a hill-and-dale record. The machines are rare and so command good prices when they appear. Incidentally, all early Brunswicks were pressed at the British Pathe factory! 1926 (these dates are fairly approximate, by the way!)

Brunswick 15061 All through the 1920s Brunswick produced a de-luxe range of usually gold-label records, but sales seem always to have been minimal Here is an early-ish Cliftophone (recorded in late 1923) of Claire Dux. What a lovely label! The thin edge of red must have made it very difficult to punch out the labels, and indeed on the other side of this disc the red line is badly broken. But the whole effect is one of luxury…

Brunswick 3039 There eventually appeared the ‘shield’ label, which in Britain was only ever small as opposed to the U.S.A. where it was large at first. Indeed, they stayed large in continental Europe until around 1934! Actually, there is an exception to every rule, and I have seen a large-shield British(?) Brunswick which had a very strange catalogue number: something like 5-1017, where the 1000 number was an American Vocalion Race Series number… but the more I think about that sort of thing, the more I think I may have dreamed it! Can anyone help? Perhaps it was some highly esoteric custom pressing? Also, note that the record illustrated here is a re-pressing of one which would originally have been a Cliftophone. It is indeed reassuring to see that such was the demand in England for records by the Original Memphis Five that re-pressings were necessary! (Pressing circa 1927?)

Brunswick 147 Hitherto, all issues on British Brunswick were of American origin. However, the redoubtable Fred Elizalde made practically all his important records for Brunswick, and the modestly-numbered ‘100’ series contains many superb gems by this much-neglected musician. Note that the star visiting Americans are credited on the label; possibly Brunswick copied this from Parlophone. In any event, fairly consistent label credits to band members seems to me to have originated in Britain. 1928.

Brunswick 1068 Brunswick fell apart here (probably more than once), but was re-floated and began again at 1000. We now have 4 scans of the same record (Duke Ellington’s ‘Mood Indigo’) which we will also use as an illustration of the appearance of the ‘O’ prefix, which has occasionally given rise to confusion. This label is an early pressing: the catalogue number appears at the bottom of the label, where it always had done with the shield label. This is ‘Mood Indigo’ with its original titling.

Brunswick 1068 Off at a tangent, the pressing is later: the catalogue number is to the right of the centre-hole. Moreover, the band credit has been made correct. However, the song still retains it old title! (Sorry that this label and the next are in black and white… I photographed them many years ago using 35mm orthochromatic film, when the luxury of scanners – let alone computers! – was but a wild fantasy!)

Brunswick 1068 Aha! Now, both band and tune have the correct title!

Brunswick 1068 Finally, on a horribly-printed (and ineptly-scanned!) post-WW2 label, the issue with the ‘O’ prefix. Well, from 1931 the issues had come thick and fast, and the 1000 series notched itself up quickly. By April 1933 it had already reached 1499. (This information by courtesy of Malcolm Rockwell, via the 78-list). At this time Brunswick became part of Decca and an ‘O’ prefix was then adopted. Whether this was the letter O or the figure 0 (zero) is known, but I’ve forgotten which it is. (I am reminded of what used to be a standard British Data Book on valves (tubes), which remarked forlornly in its preface: ‘Often, with valve types that begin with O or 0, it is not possible to determine which is intended... therefore all are listed together....’) Anyhow, when records prior to 1500 were listed in the catalogue, and hopefully, orders for them flooded in requiring re-pressings, the O was retrospectively added. Thinking about it, this must remain a fairly unusual occurrence for a record label. There must be many instances where there is actually no record such as, say, O1303. If nobody bought any more after the first run and it was never re-pressed, there actually exist only copies of Brunswick 1303, assuming, of course, that there are any copies of it left at all. Accordingly, as Brian Rust always lists British Brunswick 1000-onwards  with an ‘O’ prefix (doubtless to help distinguish them from the many other (and, alas,  frequently much better-pressed) sorts of Brunswick), he is quite possibly listing records that do not exist. (However, nobody in their right mind would complain at this exceedingly trivial infraction: after all, without Rust, lots of us would know far less about 78s that we do!) Oh: the labels scans! Sorry; I was starting to drift off into rambling…

Brunswick 1234 Just to show another illustration of O and non-O records, consider these two. The first is exceedingly rare, and I count myself lucky to own it. Moreover, this very copy of it was claimed by its vendor (to whom I would entrust my life), as having once been the property of Jack Hylton. Greatly as I admire the work of Jack Hylton down the decades, I find it difficult to detect much of the influence of Jimmie Noone in his music. Perhaps the relevant sides remain unissued.... Anyhow, if somebody will show me a copy of this one labelled O1234, I will buy them several pints of best bitter.

Brunswick 1235 While right next door, so to speak, is a record that survived all vicissitudes and was deservedly re-pressed many times until the 1950s, which is when I bought it new ‘over the counter’. Hence such records bear their endorsement of ‘O’ as a badge of Long Service!

Brunswick RL283 In the meantime, Brunswick had become part of Decca, (a cheap label buying up an expensive one (Brunswick had always sold at top-price) a reversal of former procedures…) But, in the face of the mid-1930s depression, and probably in the wake of EMI introducing the cheaper HMV BD series, the Columbia FB series and the Parlophone F series, Decca introduced (gasp!) a cheap Brunswick record! Like those series named above, it had a red-based label but unlike the deep red-maroon of HMV or the plum of the FB and F series, the cheap Brunswick had a defiant sort of scarlet red colour. In the event, it might as well have been chartreuse or eau-de-nil, because they are really very hard to find! There is even the fabulous ‘accidental issue’ of a Ted Lewis master on RL Brunswick, that was rejected because of a fantastic ‘wow’ fault on the master. Somehow, we understand, it slipped out over here on RL Brunswick, so the fanatical Ted Lewis collectors are compelled to search for this abomination, of which probably only a few dozen copies were ever pressed, but which still counts as ‘an issue’!

Brunswick 02200 The shield label held sway well into the 1950s. Indeed, I am reliably informed that early pressings of Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ actually appeared on the shield label, though I have never seen one. I have, of course, seen many dozens of copies of that record on the ‘modernised’ Brunswick label… But I choose to illustrate that last Brunswick popular series label with an ‘out-of period’ record. Namely, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band’s ‘Dipper Mouth Blues’ from Gennett, recorded in 1923 and dubbed by American Decca and issued here in the mid-1930s. It was still available virtually up to the end of 78s in this country. Not a bad life-span for a record! (See an advert for this set in the entry for Brunswick 02501 below.)

Brunswick 02501 1936 was a pivotal year for the enthusiasts of Classic Jazz. Various important articles appeared in magazines; the book ‘Rhythm On Record’ – the first attempt at a Dance/Jazz discography in Britain – appeared. In the U.S.A. Victor issued the superb 7-disc Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Album. Decca got its American counterpart to find and transfer early Gennett recordings by King Oliver, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings and The Wolverines. These were issued only in Britain in the first instance. Click here to see an advert. for them from ‘Rhythm On Record’. These reissues were extremely successful, and Brunswick carried on with an album ‘21 Years of Swing Music’. This scan is one of the discs from that album, which bears yet another Wolverines side.

Bull Dog 505 Great War period. Hard to date in the absence of lists, we often have to fall back on the repertoire for clues. Even this is of little help if it’s standard material, e.g. Mendelssohn’s ‘Spring Song’! But popular songs can be useful, provided we know their dates. Alas, ‘Frisky Old Herbert’, as sung by Billy Whitlock on this particular ‘incarnation’ of Bull Dog (there are at least three..) is not much help. Perhaps a clue lies in the colour of the paper used for the label! Check this one, then compare with this Lyceum record. Just maybe they were produced in the same factory around the same time? We still don’t really know when that time was, though. But often tiny clues like this will give us an insight as to how to proceed with our investigations, just as archaeologists use potsherds and coins to date sites. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Bull Dog 513 Just post-Gramophone Boom British label, during WW1. By courtesy of Arthur Badrock.

Bull Dog 528 Strangely, Bulldog seems to have suddenly abandoned the use of paper labels. Certainly, during the Great War economies in the printing of labels was practiced. To abandon the label altogether, then, was a stroke of inspiration! One cannot help admire the patient work of the engraver. Surely he didn’t work on the wax master itself; he must have use a combination of stamps, cast impressions and so on. I have never seen any writings on how this sort of ‘label’ was made.

Bull Dog 583 Here is an etched ‘label’, but this time infilled in white instead of red, as seen elsewhere. By courtesy of Arthur Badrock.

Bull Dog 631 Bright and cheerful is this label in orange and dark blue. Perhaps this represents the end of the Great War? Composer Melville Gideon came over as pianist with the American Ragtime Octette before the War. By courtesy of Arthur Badrock.

Bull Dog 672 We are actually into circa 1920 here. The label has become a drab green and grey. Bull Dog is fascinating because it is one of the minor labels that seem to have run through the 1914-18 war period, and survived for some time afterwards. Therefore it is an important label for the transitional period of ragtime into Jazz, 1918 – 1920. A complete listing of Bull Dogs, especially towards the end, would be very interesting indeed! By courtesy of Arthur Badrock.

Butterfly P-299 We’re back into the 1912 ‘Gramophone Boom’ era with this one, which is a ‘Popular’ record, not-very-subtly disguised by the over-stuck Butterfly label. I once saw this same ‘Butterfly’ sticker over an early 1920s blue Imperial label. It’s hard to guess what ‘Registered – Express – Reserve Stock’ actually means, but it definitely sounds impressive! I imagine somebody just bought up remainder records and stuck the Butterfly stickers on them. But if my Imperial was a ‘proper’ Butterfly record, then the Butterfly guy was active for around 10 years; we can only hope he at least made a few quid! By the way, I found this Butterfly record on Phil Pospychala’s stall at his Centenary ‘Bix Bash’ at Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.A., in late February 2003. I wondered how this piece of British discographical incunabula might have got to North America, and asked on the 78-list. It turned out that Malcolm Shaw had found a couple of this sort of Butterfly records in Wyoming, and someone else knew of one that turned up even further west, in Washington State if I remember correctly! Amazing. There are other ‘Populars’ in their right place on this page. Like Bull Dog, that label survived, vaguely anachronistic, until about 1922 or even 1923…

Celebrity 4390 An extremely rare British label, circa 1930. I have only ever seen one of these. They seem to have drawn from Dominion (q.v.) masters. A major find, one of these! It is rumoured that certain Len Fillis Hawaiian sides with vocals by Al. Bowlly only appeared on Celebrity. Alas! for Bowlly collectors; you have our deepest sympathy! By courtesy of Mike Hart.

Champion G140 Gramophone Boom. A Label of Gamage’s – a famous department store in London. Later they had a label just called Gamage – see below.

Chappell 12 By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Chappell 16 Gramophone Boom.

Chappell B3 Gramophone Boom.

Cinch 5090 A product of the Gramophone Co (i.e. H.M.V.), in reaction to the floods of low-price records. This one seems to use an existing Zonophone master, but they recorded hundreds of new sides to launch Cinch. C.1913.

Cinecord 014 This short-lived label dates from the early mid-1930s. Though the discs were 10” in size, the labels were quite small. I believe they were produced by British Homophone.

Clarion 108 This was a British Cylinder company. They produced both vertical and lateral cut discs. It is believed they continued to produce 2-minute cylinders as late as 1923!

Clarion 135 Clarion was a cylinder company, who sensibly diversified into discs, using at first the phono cut & then going on to lateral cut. The lovely labels of their discs were an adaptation of the design of their cylinder boxes. Come to think of it, was that a ‘first’ for Clarion? At any rate, the discs soon folded, and Clarion discs to this day must be far outweighed by the number of Clarion cylinders that still exist in collections. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz. On 9th August 2006, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: I think the masters for these emanated with Popular/Grammavox.

Coliseum 430b Gramophone Boom.

Coliseum 386 The Gramophone Boom. Alas, green and gold labels are hard to scan: this should be a dark green.

Coliseum 1847 Coliseum was a label that began pre-WW1, and was revived in the early 1920s. It was then produced by the Vocalion group, and is thus allied to 1920s ACO, Guardsman, Homochord, Beltona etc. They existed in this form between about 1922 and 1928. This master, because the label has a G. series (control number), is probably from American Vocalion. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Coliseum 1992 Not long before the label vanished, it underwent a colour change as shown here. From 2 shades of blue it went to a sort of russet and pink. Very nice, but it didn’t stop the label going away. These of course were lovely records to find in the 50s & 60s, because then nobody had sorted out properly what was on them, and you might find an Original Memphis Five, or even a Fletcher Henderson! (I never did, though!) The C-###-E format of the master indicates a British Vocalion Electrical recording. (The acoustic series C- prefix was ‘vested’in ACO, and ran to around C-8000 before beginning again at C-1-E in August 1926).

Columbia Test Black label and green label American Columbia discs were imported into this country before they were pressed here. This test label is of that early period. C.1905-6. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Columbia 1241

Columbia 1242 As yet, we have not attempted to systematically document the Columbia label in Britain. Here are couple of early-ish discs, which may form the nucleus of a complete set. Though this and the following disc are numbered consecutively, they have different labels. The early history of Columbia in Britain is fairly complex – I for one freely admit I have little grasp of it – but it involved Columbia apparently ‘retrogressing’ into Rena records, then re-emerging. 1241 is a Rena ‘Double Face’ record, while 1242 is a ‘Columbia-Rena’ record. The one thing I do know, is that this so-called 4-part minstrel show is a fake! It is nothing but a re-hash of four earlier single sided records. Otherwise, there would not be the announcement: ‘Gentlemen! The Introductory Overture!’ on each side. They appeared about 1910. Still, I was very pleased to find these discs in fine condition, as some of them seem to date to as early as 1903.

Columbia CB-72 Many labels carried on into the Depression just as before, hoping it would soon end. Columbia in particular continued to produce beautifully pressed, well recorded discs. This is a smaller label, and dates from 1930-1; it’s also from the time when they indicated the tempo of the record. 42 bars per minute in this case.

Columbia D-7379 An Austrian issue probably from around 1910-12. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Columbia DH-32 This design of label (the frame shape, that it…) started during WW1 and was retained afterwards until about 1920-21 in the U.K. There aren’t many ‘Christmas label’ discs, come to think about it. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.

Columbia U-101 A kind of ‘custom pressing’ for a music store or supply company in the Netherlands. I’d guess a date of ~1911 for this. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz. On 29th June 2004 Al Simmons kindly commented: …sez in Dutch...... Distributed by the Netherlands Association of Musical Instrument Dealers Association Record  (Bond Plaat) (Dutch