Lucky sample record find at local auction

[recordo]

I never usually have any luck finding interesting things like this, but got these for $1 each today...very pleased with myself.

[gramophoneshane]

Awesome score! Especially the early Tetrazzini. I've never seen any of those labels before, but hopefully someone here is familiar with them.

[Shane]

To my eyes, I believe these are test pressings, used by pressing plant employees for internal evaluation purposes. These were sometimes taken home by the employees instead of being discarded. I've never seen any of these from such an early date!! It is possible they may contain alternate takes, but you'd need a regular copy of the record to compare.

[transformingArt]

Lucky you to have all those test pressings - I wonder if any of them are unpublished takes.

I have several test pressings from HMV or Victor, and used to have a Caruso test pressing bearing this kind of label - I sold it away for 15 dollars.

[gramophoneshane]

Are we sure these are test pressings? I thought usually they either stated they were test pressings, or stated nothing at all. Sample record & advanced copy I would normally associate with radio broadcasting, but these appear to be far to early for that.
I've also got normal HMV labels from the 20s that have "Sample Record" stamped on them in ink, and they certainly aren't test pressings.
Do they normally include a catalogue number on a test pressing, and why two different labels for the one purpose?

Any chance of listing the complete matrix numbers and size of the discs?
It'd be interesting to see if they are alternative takes to those listed in the discography.

[recordo]

Two of the disks of Caruso (Martha quartette and I Lombardi Trio) have the same catalogue numbers as the published takes but I haven't played them yet to compare them to the published disks. I really was hoping for an unknown record in the Carusos...alas not to be!

Over the next few days I'll put them together as audio files with the published sides and we can compare them.

I've been looking through my Tetrazzini records to try and find the same recordings as the 'samples' that are here. I don't have any Selma Kurz, unfortunately to compare.

They are all twelve inch disks with the usual Recording Angel figure on the reverse (blank) side.

[recordo]

the Martha quarette and Lombardi trio were both recorded in New York on Sunday, January 7th, 1912. The date stamps on these particular sample records are from May and October 1912 so it looks to me like the masters or stampers were sent to Hayes, Middlesex (UK) for the Gramophone company to listen to before pressing in quantity?

[Starkton]

As far as I can see all records above are advance copies to the trade.

Quite often test pressings and advance copies to the trade are mixed up. The differentiation is simple: test pressings don't bear the catalogue number in the dead wax while advance copies do. Sometimes you read "sample" on the label while the catalogue number is already there and this wrong labeling adds to the confusion among collectors.

Unissued takes are only to be found among test pressings. In this case the recording was rejected after examination of the test pressing, either because of mechanical or artistical reasons. Test pressings, even if the recording was later issued, have historical value because they came out weeks or perhaps even months before regular pressings. It is likely that many of these survived in the collection of the artists themselves. Excellent condition is of course also important for formation of market prices. But the historical value of, say, a test pressing from Tamagno prevails.

Advance copies are regular pressings sent out, usually for free, to the trade in many hundreds of copies to promote orders. Often, they are marked "Not for sale" because crooks among the dealers afterwards sold them.
A surcharge is only justified if the condition is mint. These are early pressings of early stampers and the sound quality from mint copies is nearly as good as could be, only shortly behind test pressings. In contrary, if in less perfect condition, the missing original label is a serious drawback.
Most interesting is the stamped or written date of issue found on advance copies, because this information is often missed.

[gramophoneshane]

Thank you Starkton. It all makes complete sense now. It never dawned on me that dealers would receive promotional discs in the pre-radio days lol. The presence of the catalogue numbers had me convinced these weren't test pressings though.
Still, the survival rate of such early samples cant be all that high I would imagine. As a label nut, I'd be very happy to find just one example of these, and at a dollar each I'd be over the moon

[Swing Band Heaven]

An excellent find - i've never seen anything like those before.

S-B-H