The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is one of several 12 inch lateral discs I got with, of all things an A250 Diamond Disc along with an extra lateral reproducer and lots of early etched label diamond discs, most with delamination or cracking problems.

I never saw one of these before. I never knew that Zonophone had 12" records.
Harvey Kravitz

Based on the writing on the label it seems to be from Italy. Interesting that the label is totally different from any other Zonophone label, but the sticker in the back only refers to US patents and prices.

Thanks for sharing
Andreas

I never sawed one of those before either.

Wolfe wrote:I never sawed one of those before either.

You had better not!

Bill

The label is similar to a Tetrazzini Zonophone - but I have seen it questioned whether the Zonophone Company that issued the Tetrazzini discs was anything to do with the original Zon-o-phone.

Well at $1.25 per recording in 1905 they could not have been big sellers.

Interesting too is that about 40 of these 12 inch classical and operatic recordings dated 1905 - 1907 came with an A250 diamond disc machine. The family of the original owed said (according to the antique dealer who sold it to me) that their great-grandfather was an audiophile. Almost all of the more than 130 diamond discs that came with it were etched label, earlier recordings from the 80xxx to 83xxx series. Almost all have at least one crack or delimitation problems.

Andreas wrote, "Based on the writing on the label it seems to be from Italy."

Based on the writing on the label, it is clearly intended for Spanish-speaking markets. The Italian word for "orchestra" is "orchestra," while the Spanish word for it is "orquesta," as shown here.

Lucius1958 wrote:

Wolfe wrote:I never sawed one of those before either.

You had better not!

Bill

Do these sound good? Some of the American Zono recordings were excellent, even after Eldridge Johnson bought Zono & ran it alongside Victor for a few years. I have a few of the 12" American Zonophone discs, but all from the Johnson era.