The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I posted this in "Music" but,I think I should have posted it here first.I found this brown Berliner 12" "Deluxe Record" today.I have never seen one by Berliner.Have any of you???.I think it may be the first of the 12" issues like in the US.Around 1904??.

Rarely seen, like its Victor counterpart, introduced in 1903. Look out for a Canadian Deluxe 14-inch pressing - if there ever really was one. Your catalogues should tell ...

Out of all the Berliner catalogues I have or have seen.I have never seen anything regarding a 12" "Deluxe" or a 14" "Special Deluxe" record.I have seen and own both of the Victor counter parts.

Back in 1973 I found this one among many other records in a barn. I haven't run across another. Note that Gramo's label appears to be brown, while this one is red. The catalog numbers reflect the different series as well.

George P.

This was the usual Berliner 12 inch label until about 1906. All the early Red Seal stuff is on this label. I'll get out my camera in a bit and take a few more examples.

Here are a few more Deluxe sides. I started out with the "post Deluxe" label...which became merely Victor. This record is in wonderful shape and shows what the brown shellac sounds like if unplayed. Oh that they all sounded like this one! There is hardly a trace of surface noise. The next one is again a Deluxe, and finally an early Deluxe Red Seal. Note the brass sleeve in the spindle hole: this one is early: the recording was made in Feb, 1905 so I should thinkn this record dates from late 1905.
Jim

Then there is a brown 12" purple label.The date of it is???.Also,here is a brown 12" "Victor" where the number is not far from the "Deluxe" label.they also added Portland at the bottom and a price.

If you tilt that Purple Label in the proper way and eyeball the label with the light just so , you'll be able to see the writing on the original master. For about six years or so between 1906-ish and and 1912-13ish the Berliner folks didn't cut out the centre of the stamper, meaning that you can see all the marks that one of the Sooy brothers,... the Victor engineers.... wrote on the master: the matrix number..the take number...the date...and the artist. You can't see it on them all because the label didn't always fall into the indentations so it's legible , but I think your Lauder is ! I can see the 12 12 09 recording date upside down above the title. The rest of the info is hiding behind nipper and the gramophone. This is half the fun of collecting the Canadian pressings,,you get to see exactly what the engineer scribbled on the master.
Jim
To carry on with the " browns" Berliner decided to switch to black shellac it seems in late 1910 or early 1911. There was a funny transition period of a few months while they used up the brown labels, so one finds black records with brown labels. Likewise there was a period of dark chocolate coloured records as if they were using up the remnants of the brown compound by mixing it it with darker material. And finally the records that amuse me and which ARE uncommon were the ones that were issued when Herbert Berliner in Montreal decided to double the popular issues before Camden had come to the same conclusion so one finds double sided Berliners with the original single face label...and catalogue number...on each side.

JRT