Imperial Lambert 6 Inch Cylinders

[rodpickett]

Is anyone able to provide a brief summary regarding the history of these cylinders? Discography? Occurrence of Red v. Black?

[52089]

The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society (CLPGS.org.uk) sells a "reference" series of CDs. The one entitled "Phonograph Cylinder Histories 1 - Britannia, British Lambert and Star - RS9" may be of interest to you. I'd suggest contacting them directly for further information. (I don't own a copy of this myself.)

[rodpickett]

Thank you. I'm in the process of ordering this CD. I was unaware of it.

[Dulcetto]

There was a comprehensive article on Lambert and Imperial cylinders that appeared in the old journal of The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society many years ago. At the time of publication , sometime in the 1980's I believe ,their journal was known as " Hill and Dale News " . If you post a request on this forum , someone may be able to tell you which issue contained the article. The red color celluloid was apparently used for the initial batches of these records as a promotional gimmick by the London based Lambert concern -- but how many and for how long is unknown.
Suffice to say that all Lambert Imperial cylinders are very difficult to find today as they were only made for a matter of weeks back in 1905, as soon after their release, the parent American Lambert company failed . No doubt the records would still have been sold for a time after the company went bust as wholesalers ( jobbers) and retailers naturally would have had stocks in hand. Apparently , some of the normal size Lambert cylinders were made in red too ( at the same time ) but I have never seen an example . I do own an example of the red Imperial though ( which is the one pictured in the CLPGS Reference series booklet RS 6) Dulcetto

[RefSeries]

Lambert Imperials were first advertised in August 1905, and released in September and October, selling at two shillings (£0.10) which was a lot when a standard cylinder could be had for less than half that. Lambert marketed models of "Lambertphone" (probably made by EWC in Cologne) with six inch mandrels to play the new records but these are hard to find as in the UK the market was fading. The catalogue numbers run from 1 to 84, but there are 31 gaps and the list may not be contiguous.

UK Lambert ceased trading in November 1905, and naturally the Imperials went with it. A sad end to a plucky little company.

The red ones are very rare, as Dulcetto says. All mine are black with a lilac coloured fibre core.

Hope this helps

Keith

[rodpickett]

Thank you for this helpful information.

[epigramophone]

The Hillandale News has been archived on line here :

https://archive.org/details/thehillanda ... ads&page=1