Any info about Brunswick Chinese record?

[wtt11]

Hi all, I just got this from ebay couple days ago. It seems to be less common. I know nothing about it and would like to know more about this branch of records. Any clue will be appreciated !! Thanks

[victorIIvictor]

Since your disc is credited to "Brunswick Radio Corporation," I assume this line of Chinese records was offered during Warner Bros. Pictures' brief ownership of Brunswick (April 1930-August 1931). I don't have mine at hand, but the discs I have with this label I believe credit the successor company, Brunswick Record Corporation. Launching an elaborate multicolored label to a minority market in a worsening depression was unwise, but I appreciate their efforts. If you can submit a larger scan (so I can read the catalog number, at least), I will see if your record is listed in either Ross Laird's Brunswick discography or in Richard Spottswood's Ethnic Music on Record.

Best wishes, Mark

[wtt11]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your help! Here are pics of both sides.

[wtt11]

forget another side. Here it is.

[victorIIvictor]

So Ross Laird's Brunswick discography, Volume 3, page 1251 provides some information on these disks. The matrix numbers for these sides are HKC506-A and HKC507-A, and they were recorded in Canton (= Guangzhou), China, circa November, 1929. So these could have been released by Brunswick-Balke-Collender, with their credit on the label, but I have never seen a Brunswick record with Chinese recordings with a BBC credit. Unfortunately, Laird knew neither the artists nor the titles, so I can't say which matrix goes to which side. Moreover, on page xxix of Volume 1, he notes that Brunswick suppressed the matrix number on pressings between 1924-1926, and again between the spring of 1928 through 1931 (with some exceptions for 1931). So I assume your discs do not show matrix numbers in the runout, but if they do, please share which ones go to which side.

I will see if I can figure out who the artists and the titles are; I would like to know if these are the first two discs in a longer "set," as many Chinese works recorded in the 78 RPM era spanned several 10 inch sides, and that includes Brunswick issues of such material.

As I said, the Brunswick Radio Corporation credit suggests these were issued between April 9, 1930 and December 12, 1931 (the precise dates of Warner Bros. Pictures issuing records on the Brunswick label… of course dates of label credit use are never so precise, but at least we know these issues were not from BEFORE April 9, 1930). It's interesting that the "A Subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures" credit does not appear; it does on English language issues of this era, at least the few I have.

Laird's discography (Volume 3, pages 1231-32) also shows that Brunswick made the following trips to Southeast Asia:

November, 1929:
Canton (= Guangzhou): 248 matrices recorded.
Manila: 25 matrices recorded.

February, 1931:
Amoy (= Xiamen): 80 matrices recorded.
Hong Kong: 174 matrices recorded.
Manila: 101 matrices recorded.

I sure hope a few more of these come my way! Thanks for the enlarged pictures.

Best wishes, Mark

[wtt11]

I appreciate your work! Thanks you Mark! And I might need to hunt this book to get less confusion on me I do find matrix numbers starting with H but not HKC. More or less the same I guess. What can you conclude with?

Best regards,

[victorIIvictor]

You are welcome, and thanks for the scans showing the matrix numbers in mirror-image. I guess it's no surprise that the lower of the two numbers corresponds to Side A, but it's nice to know for sure.

As to why the numbers show an "H" suffix instead of an "HKC" prefix, it's anybody's guess. Probably there is a discrepancy in the way the matrix numbers were listed in the ledgers versus how they appeared on the pressings. As you say, it's "more or less the same."

The Brunswick discography is excellent, and can be purchased as an e-book as well as in the form of 4 printed volumes.

http://books.google.com/books?id=GAerQS ... hy&f=false

Best wishes, Mark