The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I know that Royal Purple records sell for more than your typical Blue Amberol? Why do these sell for more, are they rarer? What is the genre of music on these Royal Purples? I noticed that many of them seem to be religious hymn titles.

They are rarer, were more expensive when new too and of course that unique color makes them attractive to collectors. Most of them are dubbed from the 82xxx & 83xxx series diamond discs. Only the first 5 were directly recorded and not issued on disc.

They were Edison's prestige cylinder line, but as Valecnik has pointed out, most were acoustically dubbed from Diamond Disc masters with varying degrees of success.

The five directly recorded titles by the tenor Alessandro Bonci on 29001-29005 are eagerly sought by collectors and prices reflect this, but you can purchase the complete Royal Purple series on two CD's with informative booklets from the CLPGS www.clpgs.org.uk. This represents a real bargain for those of us who can never hope to own all the originals.

Valecnik wrote:They are rarer, were more expensive when new too and of course that unique color makes them attractive to collectors. Most of them are dubbed from the 82xxx & 83xxx series diamond discs. Only the first 5 were directly recorded and not issued on disc.

29001-29006 were not originally issued as Royal Purples. 29001-29005 were, as noted here, directly recorded solos by Bonci. 29006 was a dubbed version of the Rigoletto quartet. 29007 was the first number originally issued as a Royal Purple. This is Freda Hempel singing Aloha Oe.

Oddly enough, it is possible to find many of the 29000 series cylinders on both Royal Purple and Blue Amberols.

Oddly enough, it is possible to find many of the 29000 series cylinders on both Royal Purple and Blue Amberols

After the Royal Purple series finished in June 1921, the titles remained available until towards the very end of cylinder production but were pressed in the normal Blue Amberol blue and issued in normal BS boxes. That is why so many 29,000 series cylinders turn up as "Blue" Amberols.

As Epigramophone rightly points out, the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society has issued a 2-volume, 4 x CD history of this fascinating but flawed series including recordings of all 77 issues as part of its Reference Series. Full details are on www.clpgs.org.uk

All the best

Tim W-W

There's only one Royal Purple dubbing that came from an unissued DD.It is 29058,"Valse Sentimentale"played by Albert Spalding.edisonplayer