Rare or not? Advice please!

[Antonia E]

Hey all!

Among recent purchases, I’ve stumbled across a shellac recording and am unsure if it’s a rare or not. Long story short, a friend was asking me (for a project they were working on) if I had a recording of the Abdication speech from when it was actually made (Dec 11, 1936) I sourced a couple of cheap copies online (planning on using whichever played best) but aware that they would be recordings made after the fact, and read by others as Google states that the speech went out on live BBC radio, no recordings were officially made, and the only ones which exist stem from a BBC employee breaking the rule and recording it sneakily - this resulting in a handful of copies from one of which the archived example was taken (the BBC website states that is the reason they have a copy which people can now hear online and which of course has made its way to YouTube etc etc).

Anyway (sorry for the rambling backstory), one of the discs I laid hands on is a 10” shellac, plain white handwritten label (“King Edward’s abdication speech” written on one side, “Part II” written on the other) it is not stamped but has “S-1” marked on the shellac on side 1. It plays at 78rpm. As the label suggests the speech is in two parts front and back and matches the YouTube recording exactly. Is this rare? It certainly wasn’t being sold as rare or expensive but I’m interested to know and can’t seem to find any info! Maybe it went out in the King’s voice oversees?

Wonderful brains of the forum - any info greatly welcome!

-Antonia

[epigramophone]

Don't believe everything you read on line. The Abdication broadcast is included in "The Sounds of Time", a 78rpm five record album set of historic broadcasts produced by Oriole Records with the collaboration of the BBC. It even features the BBC announcer John Snagge as narrator. The album is not rare, and examples regularly turn up on eBay.

Pictures of the ten inch record you mention might help with identification. With a plain white label it could be a test pressing. You can easily check whether the voice is that of Edward VIII by comparing it with YouTube clips of the original broadcast.

[Antonia E]

Don't believe everything you read on line. The Abdication broadcast is included in "The Sounds of Time", a 78rpm five record album set of historic broadcasts produced by Oriole Records with the collaboration of the BBC. It even features the BBC announcer John Snagge as narrator. The album is not rare, and examples regularly turn up on eBay.

Pictures of the ten inch record you mention might help with identification. With a plain white label it could be a test pressing. You can easily check whether the voice is that of Edward VIII by comparing it with YouTube clips of the original broadcast.

Thank you for the reply!

It’s definitely Edward VIII’s voice, and there is no narration - the only sound on it is the speech, no other voices at all. I’ll add some photos. (It’s a grubby label - white writable surface so it’s soaked up muck. Unless someone has tried to “antique” it by wiping it with coffee or some such nonsense.)

It’s at least a bit of fun finding out the origins of things

[Curt A]

I think you are trying to determine whether your exact white label record is a rare BBC unauthorized copy, not if other copies of the speech are rare... Correct? Since the label on your record does not look like an actual "label", it's hard to say if it's original. My guess (for what it's worth) is that the original labels were somehow damaged and peeled off leaving the white paper remnants (the stains on the white paper look like water stains or something, maybe from cleaning the record), therefore the owner hand wrote the description for identification purposes. BUT, this is just conjecture... It's unlikely that this is an actual BBC recording made by an audio engineer who made it on the sly... but, what do I know?

[Antonia E]

I think you are trying to determine whether your exact white label record is a rare BBC unauthorized copy, not if other copies of the speech are rare... Correct? Since the label on your record does not look like an actual "label", it's hard to say if it's original. My guess (for what it's worth) is that the original labels were somehow damaged and peeled off leaving the white paper remnants (the stains on the white paper look like water stains or something, maybe from cleaning the record), therefore the owner hand wrote the description for identification purposes. BUT, this is just conjecture... It's unlikely that this is an actual BBC recording made by an audio engineer who made it on the sly... but, what do I know?

Haha! Yes I’m hardly expecting to find riches untold or a holy grail of records it’s a bit of fun though seeing what info the learned brains on here have - and I love a good mystery!

[epigramophone]

One thing is certain. Whoever wrote the label could not spell "Abdication" .

[Antonia E]

One thing is certain. Whoever wrote the label could not spell "Abdication" .

The GLC being the a Greater London Council? Ooh that’s a thought... that was in existence from the mid 60s to the mid 80s wasn’t it? My brain is rather foggy (or should that be smoggy) when it comes to the history of the ol Metropolis-upon-Thames. It might be “Give to Local Charity-shop” haha

Darn you edited your post and chopped out the reference. Certainly true on the spelling, but then I tend to mangel my words with the greatest of ease so I surely cannot judge

[JerryVan]

Appears to be written with a fountain pen? If so, suggests some age at least.

[Antonia E]

Appears to be written with a fountain pen? If so, suggests some age at least.

Oh lordy... well now I have to stop using my own fountain pen haha! (I'm hardly a spring chicken... although there are plenty of springs in the house these days!)

[epigramophone]

https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/ann ... ion-speech