The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Another nice find today while checking out antique shops in Northern New Jersey - Franklin Township this time. My last post spoke about a great find of 20 near perfect Edison Grand Opera cylinders last week for only $5.00 each. Today we were in a small antique co-op and found an old box of small 7" one-sided Columbia disc records with the back labels still intact, and all of them in great condition except for two that were cracked on the bottom of the box. There were 14 excellent ones (see photo of one) that play very well with minimal background noise after proper cleaning. This time we bought them all for $2.00 each including the mouse turds that were inside the box. Can someone give me any historical info on these small records as I am not familiar with these little one-sided Columbias? Dates on the labels are 1900, 1901, and 1904.

The first 7" Columbia records that were labeled as such appeared in fall 1902 (prior to the Columbia label's appearance, Columbia's records were labelled "Climax Record). The 7" and 10" were the first sizes offered. The earliest Columbia discs retained a brass ring at the spindle hole and a Zonophone-style notch on the blank reverse. The earliest Columbia label had a thick silver ring around the perimeter of the paper label, and was lettered "Columbia Disc Record." The next label variation dropped the ring, and included a lease agreement above the spindle hole (This label was used from 1904-1906). The last Columbia label found on 7" discs had a "Grand Prize" announcement above the spindle hole.

Columbia discontinued the 7" size in 1907.

George P.

Wow, You're having some month!
Congratulations on another great weekend find close to home.
Maybe other collectors are going to start flocking to the Garden State.
Gene

I need to hang-out with you ! You seem to have good karma!


I have a couple of these 7-inch Columbias... the material always reminded me of anthracite coal !

Neat stuff !

Pity many of the artists aren't lsited on the label...

I don't know about "anthracite coal" but the blank reverse side is rather lumpy with little bumps, etc. They are crudely made that's for sure, but they play decent after cleaning them. We also came across a big big Sonora console at another shop near the Pa. border. Beautiful machine in decent shape, redish mahogony, gold metal parts, original lock key, but the seller is asking over $1,200.00 for it. No way will they ever snatch that kind of money for that machine. Who knows...... Maybe?