The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This 1912 catalog indicates that the equivalent of the American "L Door Victrola XVI" was available in the Czech lands in Oak, Mahogany and Walnut at that time. I've never ever seen one.

This is really interesting. Is this from a HMV or Victor catalog? Can you show more of the catalog? I'm sure there is one of these out there...I was floored to see an early oak Victrola XIV cabinet on ebay.de once.

The record boxes/albums are unusual. The pulls are different than the American ones. Anyone have pictures of these albums or boxes?
Harvey Kravitz

Here are most pages containing machines. Note the "Gramola 105 & 106, essentially an early Victrola XIV. There are also a few pages of discs offered, popular tunes of the day.

And the last of the pages containing machine illustrations.

The first major Gramophone dealer in Prague was a Mr. Fuchs who in 1904 ran the Czech subsidiary of Odeon, and in 1906 became official distributor for the British Gramophone Company. Bial & Freund were already selling UK & German gramophone products in 1902 in the Czech / Slovak region.

I would assume that by 1912 Gramophone company had a subsidiary in the area.

US PHONO wrote:The first major Gramophone dealer in Prague was a Mr. Fuchs who in 1904 ran the Czech subsidiary of Odeon, and in 1906 became official distributor for the British Gramophone Company. Bial & Freund were already selling UK & German gramophone products in 1902 in the Czech / Slovak region.

I would assume that by 1912 Gramophone company had a subsidiary in the area.

Very interesting! How did you find that information? Anything more about it you could share?

From this record label (second picture below) it appears that the Gramola name was used by HMV in Czechoslovakia. Even the catalogue number DK112 is the same as the UK issue.

The record was manufactured in Aussig, which was the former German name of the Czech city Usti nad Labem.

I do not know what relationship The Gramophone Company (Czechoslovakia) Ltd had with the distributor Gramola Records, which was founded in 1924 and is still in business.

Very interesting. Do you know the approximate recording date of the record?

Valecnik wrote:Very interesting. Do you know the approximate recording date of the record?

The record probably dates from the early 1920's when HMV started re-issuing earlier recordings in double sided format.

"Ave Maria" was recorded by Victor in October 1913 and the other side, "IL RE PASTORE : L'amero saro constante" by HMV in May 1913. According to my Melba discography, HMV labels incorrectly show "Ave Maria" with organ accompaniment, but Gramola got it right!