Catalog numbers on Red Seal Victors

[howardpgh]

Did Victor issue the catalog numbers of the single side Red Seal records in blocks rather than consecutively?
A certain block of numbers for vocals, instrumentals, etc?

[Henry]

If you can get ahold of Julian Morton Moses, "Collectors' Guide to American Recordings 1895-1925," you can extract answers to your query by consulting the numerical guide, which lists ten-inch and twelve-inch single-face issues in number sequence. For example, many ten-inch singles lie in the 64xxx series, others in 66xxx. In the twelve-inch, 74xxx and 76xxx are listed. And there are other groupings as well. There seems to be some system of alphabetical grouping by artist. Practically all of these recordings are operatic, with instrumentals in the minority. Moses is a wealth of information about this period; it was reprinted by Dover many years ago, but AFAIK is now out-of-print. You may be able to find a copy in your local library, or interlibrary loan. Also have a look at this on-line discography: http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php.

For the Dover reprint of Moses, the ISBN is 0-486-23448-7, and the LC no. is 76-27456.

[victorIIvictor]

"Did Victor issue the catalog numbers of the single side Red Seal records in blocks rather than consecutively?"

Yes.

"A certain block of numbers for vocals, instrumentals, etc?"

No, the blocks were set aside based on the price of the record and the diameter of the record. Indirectly, of course, the price was affected by the type of performance (i.e., Victor charged more for vocal duets than vocal solos, more for quartets than duets, etc.), but that was not the main factor in their creating a particular block of catalog numbers.

This is a complex subject, handled well by Michael Sherman in his excellent Collector's Guide to Victor Records. I presume it's available in libraries, but you may find it indispensable and want to buy it.

The latest version:

http://www.amazon.com/Collectors-Victor ... 0963290339

The next latest version:

http://www.amazon.com/Collectors-Victor ... 0963290304

The latter is much cheaper, and while it doesn't have so much coverage of exotic issues or have as many pictures, the text is almost identical and it will certainly answer your questions regarding this subject.

I haven't looked at my copy of the Moses book in a long while, and so defer to Henry regarding its merits. I have the third ed. of Moses, issued in 1993 by Monarch Record Enterprises (Michael Sherman's company, what do you know). "This new edition revises and adds to all that was included in the first two books [The record collector's guide : American celebrity discs, published 1936; Collector's guide to American recordings 1895-1925, published 1949 and re-published 1977]."

ISBN: 0963290312

Best wishes, Mark

[victorIIvictor]

Here is the third ed. of Moses, $12 brand-new from the publisher:

http://monarchrecs.com/publications.html

Best wishes, Mark