British?European Record Sleeves VS American Sleeves.

[Phonofreak]

In my years of collecting, I have noticed that British/European sleeves have a much thicker and higher quality paper than American sleeves. I always why that was. I have a theory about this. I almost never see British/European record albums, except maybe some HMV or G & T types. I wonder if the if the British or Europeans stored their records in the sleeves on a table or in cabinets? I know there was an abundance of record albums in the USA. Were the record sleeves meant to be thrown away, so the owner can put the records in the albums? Any input on this?
Harvey Kravitz

[wjw]

Maybe the fat sleeves were optional and at extra cost. Last patch of british 78's I came upon had several records in sleeves that were two halves sewn together!

[CarlosV]

In my years of collecting, I have noticed that British/European sleeves have a much thicker and higher quality paper than American sleeves. I always why that was.

Harvey, maybe you are referring to the so-called "dealer sleeves". These hard cardboard sleeves were popular in England and Sweden (apart from these two I have seen scattered examples from Holland), and were produced with the local shop name printed on it. I don't know if they were given away of if the buyer had to pay extra. The original factory sleeves were of the same quality as the US ones, made of flimsy paper, and that applied to all European manufacturers. Very early Pathé records had strong sewn cardboard sleeves, but that only lasted for some years until they were replaced in the late 10s with paper sleeves. The flaw with the US manufacturer sleeves is that several were made with acid paper, and today have crumbled into dust, like the Edison DD sleeves or war-time Victor sleeves.

As to record albums, they were very popular in Europe, as popular as anywhere else, and you can still find them from all origins, England, Germany, France etc.

[victorIIvictor]

Carlos V wrote, "These hard cardboard sleeves were popular in England and Sweden (apart from these two I have seen scattered examples from Holland), and were produced with the local shop name printed on it."

I have examples from a shop in Denmark, as well.

"As to record albums, they were very popular in Europe, as popular as anywhere else, and you can still find them from all origins, England, Germany, France etc."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, European record albums turn up infrequently in the USA, at least on the West Coast where I live and search. The only one I have is one I purchased from James (roaring 20s), and it has a stitched spine not unlike the early "Musical Masterpieces on Victor Records" classical album sets, rather than the hard spines typically used on record albums produced in the USA. This album has a rendering of a internal horn tabletop model on its cover, suggesting it dates from the early 1920s. However, I don't want to draw any conclusions based on such a small sample!

Best wishes, Mark