The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just brought home a very fine collection of jazz-blues-R&B-country-misc 78s. Looking through the first 10 boxes, I found my 2nd Black Swan label record #2032 (Arkansas Blues / Jazz Me Blues) by Lucille Hegamin and Her Blue Flame Syncopators. Got a Woody Guthrie on Asch, Big Mama Thornton with Johnny Otis, Lil Green, a large group of old country featuring 10 King label Hawkshaw Hawkins, 8 MGM label Hank Williams, a ton of artists I've never heard of, and a whole bunch more great stuff. Got a 1908 Victor Record recording of William Jennings Bryan 'Immortality' in 'E' condition with a label that looks new.

Usually, I buy a collection and pick through with a small pile of keepers and a large pile of stuff I don't need. This group is just the opposite - about all have been keepers, so far. Still 8 more boxes to go.

Cliff

Congratulations! That's an awesome find. Please let us know what other treasures you find in the lot.

Andreas

Nice finds. I have a sincere passion for the early, unusual record labels and artists. And not so much for their rarity, value or content but often it's the label design/artwork that interests me. One of my favorites is the beautiful Faultless Concert Record label showing a horse and buggy with people strolling in front of a large building. Regarding the Black Swan labels pictured I've always found it interesting that record labels like this indicate "Soprano With Orch" for some of the early Blues or sometimes Comedy selections just as an opera or classical record label selection might indicate.

Doug

More from this collection - One of my favorite labels to find is the Hawaiian BELL RECORDS label. You can always count on great Hawaiian music. Apparently, someone went to Hawaii in 1947 and brought back some souvenirs.

More interesting labels from this group-

And a test pressing by Steve Lawrence released on King label, #15185

Here's something I've not seen before - a dealers stamp on a record sleeve. The sleeve is in good condition and the accompanying record from 1915 is very nice. This whole collection is full of stuff like this. Might take months to go through the whole collection....

Batwing Victor 101? Who knew?

You hit one out of the park with that Black Swan label. Some nay-sayers like to tell everyone that everything out there has been cherry picked, but that's clearly not the case. Congratulations!!