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I have had a Tamagno 10" record with picture sleeve for a while. I recently found a great Melba 12" picture sleeve with record.
There are a few different issues of these picture sleeves. Approximately, four Tamagno's (before and after death), and at least two Melba cameo' were used.
This Melba cameo I believe is the lesser found of the two.

These Melba & Tamagno records with picture sleeves (from G&T stampers) were $5.00!. A staggering amount for a record back then... .

.....especially considering that the Tamagno record is about 40% unused shellac. Sort of like those repro 4-min cylinders with 2:30 minutes of music on them.
John

I have several Tamagno records, including Ensultate! issued on both 10 and 12 inch. The song lasts little more than a minute. But what a minute!!! The sleeves are unsurprisingly much rarer than the records themselves - I have none of those.

Tamagno was the first artist to receive a royalty on the sale of each record, rather than a flat fee. He also received a cash advance of £2000, an enormous sum in 1902. The records had a stipulated selling price of £1 each, of which the royalty was 4 shillings, 20 shillings to the pound in those pre-decimal days.

Tamagno's parsimony was legendary, and the original G&T issues each bore an individual serial number so that he could check that he was being paid the correct amount.

Needless to say, when Melba agreed to record she insisted on going one better. Her records sold for one guinea (one pound and one shilling) each.

There's already substantial discussion on these sleeves in another thread.

epigramophone wrote:Tamagno was the first artist to receive a royalty on the sale of each record, rather than a flat fee. He also received a cash advance of £2000, an enormous sum in 1902. The records had a stipulated selling price of £1 each, of which the royalty was 4 shillings, 20 shillings to the pound in those pre-decimal days.

Tamagno's parsimony was legendary, and the original G&T issues each bore an individual serial number so that he could check that he was being paid the correct amount.

Needless to say, when Melba agreed to record she insisted on going one better. Her records sold for one guinea (one pound and one shilling) each.

Is that why there is a '124' (just below the Berliner) in gold stamped on the label of the Tamagno record..??. If not, I wonder what the number represents..??.

Yes that is the serial number.

VintageTechnologies wrote:Yes that is the serial number.

Thanks. I wondered what the number represented. I think I have two other Tamagno discs with these numbers (no sleeves). They all came out of Mexico years ago.

As mentioned, all are from G&T stampers.

The Tamagnos sold for $5 in the Victor catalog, straight through the 1920s, though for some reason Victor only issued the 10" discs. I once timed the "Esultate" on the 12" G&T, and it clocked in at 34 seconds (not counting the run-out after the last note, which has some distant studio conversation. As was noted before, it was rather parsimonious but what a performance!

yankmycrank wrote:The Tamagnos sold for $5 in the Victor catalog, straight through the 1920s, though for some reason Victor only issued the 10" discs. I once timed the "Esultate" on the 12" G&T, and it clocked in at 34 seconds (not counting the run-out after the last note, which has some distant studio conversation. As was noted before, it was rather parsimonious but what a performance!

Here it is on YouTube (not mine, sadly):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKLrtrjLF8[/youtube]