Interesting Victor Record Label

[msherman]

The Robeson label is quite interesting. Chester is correct in that the “RCA Manufacturing Company” appeared on the labels in the early summer of 1935, so the pressing definitely dates from 1935 or later. RCA used the “Batwing” on their acoustic recordings still in the catalog up through about 1943, so that would indicate the Robeson recording may have been acoustic.

However, Bolig indicates a recording date of 27 July 1925 and a release date of 25 Sept 1925 and the location shown is Camden, so that would argue against it being acoustic, as Camden was definitely recording electrically by that time.

That leaves the simple explanation that it was simply an error, and probably should have been issued with a conventional scroll label. Victor did not make a lot of mistakes like that, but they absolutely made some. I illustrated a couple in in the Collector's Guide to Victor Records on page 225.

I suspect this may be one of them.