My First Berliner Record

[Josh Cattermole 1999]

Thank you, that is very useful info. My maths is terrible, and I came to the incredibly round answer of about 4 Shillings. Hope that's near enough to the right answer. Cheers.

[Governor Flyball]

The commercial Hanover pressing plant, initially comprising ten record presses, was set up in Joseph Berliner's telephone factory in August 1898, and on 24th November 1898 the Berliner brothers Emile, Jacob and Joseph formed the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft mbH.

Commercial record pressing at the Hayes, Middlesex factory commenced in July 1908.

Thanks for the correction. It was indeed Emile Berliner's relations in Hannover.

[Menophanes]

My earliest English Berliner is No. 2022, 'Tommy Atkins' sung by the baritone Tom Brice, recorded on 5 September 1898 – only a month after operations in London began.

I believe that the REPRODUCED IN HANOVER stamp on the reverse was introduced during 1899. The record just mentioned does not show this, nor does No. 2237, 'The Future Mrs. 'Awkins' sung by Albert Chevalier, recorded on 30 December 1898; on the other hand No. 7921, Pizzicato from Delibes' Sylvia (violin solo by Jacques Jacobs), recorded in June 1899, does include this mark*. REPRODUCED IN HANOVER is found on almost all British and western European G. & T. discs, although there was another factory in Riga (Latvia) which supplied pressings for the Russian market and occasionally elsewhere.

The 'angel' trade-mark on the back was a later development, dating I think from the last months of 1901. I have seen Berliners which include it and labelled Gramophone & Typewriter 10" discs which do not. Among the latter is Dan Leno's 'Clever Mr. Green', which was recorded in November 1901. J. R. Bennett alleges that Leno's 1901 records were not issued until 1903, but in view of the very archaic appearance of my copy of this disc (large label, hand-written matrix number, no ridges or recessed area on the front, and of course the blank back) I find this hard to believe.

*Jacobs, a Dutchman by birth – his real forename was Leopold – was quite an accomplished violinist, whom Fred Gaisberg had discovered when Jacobs was leading the band at the Trocadero Restaurant in London. He was a pugnacious man who once, in 1903, got into a fight with the Australian pianist-composer Percy Grainger when they were both touring with the contralto Ada Crossley; Grainger, a small but wiry and hard-trained man, came out on top, much to his own surprise. Fifty years later, Grainger paid tribute to Jacobs's musicianship in an autobiographical note. In 1910 Jacobs walked out of an engagement at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York after the management had complained that he was being too familiar with the house's clients. In the 1920s he was back in the U.S.A. as director of a small orchestra; there are some stylish light-music performances by this band on YouTube.

Oliver Mundy.

[Josh Cattermole 1999]

Very interesting info. Really helps to clear up the story behind the Hanover stamp. Cheers.