The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was sorting through a big stack of batwings last night. I had duplicates of a one-sided red-label record (it was a Caruso), and noticed that the non-playable sides were different: One was completely smooth, the other had the textured "Victor" ... was this a common thing? Does one version indicate a non-U.S. pressing or something else? Maybe a second pressing of the same catalog number?

I don't know exactly what it indicates, and it's unusual, but not particularly rare. I've seen it on maybe 5% or so of one sided red seals (never on purple, blue or black), and it seems to maybe have started toward the end of the one sided era, for decorative reasons.

bfinan11 wrote:for decorative reasons.

I like the textured sides quite a bit relative to the smooth sides, but it struck me as very odd to have both a smooth version and a textured version of the same catalog number

I think the sides with the texture and design were later one-sided classical releases after all the popular records went double-sided. 1920's.