Cody K wrote:Additional huh: Digging in the piles of what I've got lying around, the earliest-numbered scroll I've run across so far is 19838, Billy Murray's Roll 'Em Girls with Murray and Aileen Stanley doing Down By the Winegar Woiks on the reverse. Thing is, this one has "RCA Victor Company" on a curved line at the bottom of the label -- which only proves that it was pressed in 1930 or so, though it was recorded in 1925. I'm pretty sure I had a batwing copy of this at one time.
And 20071 has "Orthophonic Recording" in a single line to the left of the hole and "Victor Talking Machine Co." in a straight line at the bottom; while this is the earliest version of the scroll label, all it shows is that the record was pressed before 1928. Sherman notes that the catalog number was moved to the right of the hole and "Orthophonic Recording" appeared in two lines at the left of the hole in 1927, but these changes only appeared in the case of new recordings.
Obviously I need to be looking for the highest-numbered batwing I can find, not the lowest-numbered scroll. Of course! Some things stayed in print for quite a while and newer pressings would be given the label currently in use.
My copy of "Down by the Winegar Woiks" / "Roll 'em, Girls" by Murray and Stanley is on a Victor arch-label ( or "bat-wing", as most collectors seem to refer to them.)
I have a few Victor electrical recordings that were issued with the old arch-label... but they have the VE impressed in the "dead wax" inside the run-out area... don't remember exact titles as I sit here, believe they are classical ?