The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

gramophone-georg wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2025 12:37 am

Curt A wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2025 9:11 pm One of my favorites is Parlophon...


Parlophon_Record(GCSA)v.jpg

I'll see your Parlophon and raise you a few.
Click on the photos to straighten them.

Thanks for posting those Georg, they're great...

A couple of the "gorgeous/obscure" ones I had mentioned. I haven't done any research into these yet so I am unsure what countries they haul from but I'm pretty sure the "Enregistrement Electrique" is a European make of some sort (appears to be a Pathé manufacturer). I haven't played that one as I don't have a Pathé machine and am not looking to roll the dice with a Pathé make that I don't know will play on a "regular machine" or not, but I did take a listen to the other two and found the music to be OK.

Anybody ever seen any of these labels before? The Mirofon label has a peculiar detailing in the lead-in area (see the labeled image).

The wedding of Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, to Hereditary Prince Ernst August of Cumberland, the only surviving son of Ernst August Crown Prince of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland, with the participation of the Russian Tsar and the English King, among others, was the last major social event of the European aristocracy before the First World War.

The splendid label of the commemorative disc, recorded on 26 May 1913, two days after the wedding, is extraordinary. Two myrtle twigs frame the text field with black and gold letters on an apricot-colored background. Oval portraits of the wedding couple have been individually glued onto blank fields prepared for this purpose.

FredSugarHall_fan wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2025 1:18 pm A couple of the "gorgeous/obscure" ones I had mentioned. I haven't done any research into these yet so I am unsure what countries they haul from but I'm pretty sure the "Enregistrement Electrique" is a European make of some sort (appears to be a Pathé manufacturer). I haven't played that one as I don't have a Pathé machine and am not looking to roll the dice with a Pathé make that I don't know will play on a "regular machine" or not, but I did take a listen to the other two and found the music to be OK.

Anybody ever seen any of these labels before? The Mirofon label has a peculiar detailing in the lead-in area (see the labeled image).

Mirofon is Czech.
The Pathé is quite interesting. It's an electrical recording but not an "Actuelle". I was not aware that Pathé made vertical electrically recorded records outside of possibly transcription discs. Sure this is a vertical recording?
Bel Canto was actually a very short lived (approx 3 years) German label- 1909-12

Starkton wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2025 7:14 pm The wedding of Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, to Hereditary Prince Ernst August of Cumberland, the only surviving son of Ernst August Crown Prince of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland, with the participation of the Russian Tsar and the English King, among others, was the last major social event of the European aristocracy before the First World War.

The splendid label of the commemorative disc, recorded on 26 May 1913, two days after the wedding, is extraordinary. Two myrtle twigs frame the text field with black and gold letters on an apricot-colored background. Oval portraits of the wedding couple have been individually glued onto blank fields prepared for this purpose.

That is VERY cool indeed and doubtless quite rare. NICE find!

The British Royal Family was slow to record commercially. Here is their first issue, recorded in 1924 :

The Mirofon is a disguised Homokord, and deserves a small analysis of the symbols and numbers pressed on the runout area.
First the date of recording on the Homokord fashion, is pressed at 6 o'clock as H12P which means August 12th, 1911
Second, the stamper processing date is pressed at 9 o'clock as 211211A, which is 21th of December, 1911.
At 3 o'clock is the original Homokord catalogue number 83847, whatever it means...
The numbers at 12 o'clock M6679R I don't know... They look as other catalogue numbers, the 6679 would be British. The M and R in the Homokord date keys would mean December (M) and 1909 (R) which are clearly not on line with the others, so these letters could better be something related to the pressing, as the A following the 211211.
Homokord-Homophone published records around all Europe and many things the same records are published for different countries under different catalogue numbers, this is not rare at all.
The other things, raised circles around the label and the record edge, and the fast end groove between two raised borders, are typical Homokord manufacture.
Info taken from Peter Copeland articles in Historic Record no22, jan1992, pages 22-25 and no23 of April 92, pages 23-26, send to me by the late Peter Copeland, God bless him.

gramophone-georg wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2025 9:50 pm

FredSugarHall_fan wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2025 1:18 pm A couple of the "gorgeous/obscure" ones I had mentioned. I haven't done any research into these yet so I am unsure what countries they haul from but I'm pretty sure the "Enregistrement Electrique" is a European make of some sort (appears to be a Pathé manufacturer). I haven't played that one as I don't have a Pathé machine and am not looking to roll the dice with a Pathé make that I don't know will play on a "regular machine" or not, but I did take a listen to the other two and found the music to be OK.

Anybody ever seen any of these labels before? The Mirofon label has a peculiar detailing in the lead-in area (see the labeled image).

Mirofon is Czech.
The Pathé is quite interesting. It's an electrical recording but not an "Actuelle". I was not aware that Pathé made vertical electrically recorded records outside of possibly transcription discs. Sure this is a vertical recording?
Bel Canto was actually a very short lived (approx 3 years) German label- 1909-12

OK, I give up--I've tried twice now to get the photos in order in line, and they simply don't work, so I'll include them all in a lump at the bottom. Pathé did issue vertical cut electric recordings, but not many. The photo shows the only one I have, also the only one I've seen; it's the blue one. Note that it specifies playback with a sapphire ball in a tiny note under the catalogue number. Needle cut records from the period when Pathé issued both formats usually specify "aiguille," which I gather is French for "needle," as shown on the multi-colored label (not my record).

FredSugarHall_fan's record is almost certainly needle cut lateral. That said, I wouldn't inflict a steel needle on it; in my opinion, playback on a modern turntable would be far the better choice.

The Pathé electric the mirror of voice talks by itself, it's the earlier version of Pathé electrical recordings. In Spain they were the same, except written in Spanish. They were lateral standard needle type records playable in any normal gramophone or modern record player with adequate thickness of stylus. Of course you can play it as the Victor or Columbia etc.