The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently acquired the 10" Climax record pictured below, quite a rare find here in the UK.
In the area between the grooves and the label there is a small cartouche with the letters "VTM", which I assume stands for "Victor Talking Machine".
Does this mean that as early as 1901/2, Columbia manufactured this record under some arrangement with their arch rival Victor?

Climax was for a short period owned by Eldridge Johnson. During that time Climax masters were pressed by Victor. Johnson then sold Climax to Columbia. I think you have an early example there when Columbia was pressing the masters they had obtained from Johnson in the sale, when Columbia were just getting their feet wet in the flat disc biz.

This was from the famous Victor/Columbia "feud" of 1901. Johnson bought out the Burt Co. pressing plant from Columbia (when Columbia's Edward Easton was out of town, iirc), and had all the Climax matrices smuggled out and stamped VTM.

Johnson then used these as leverage to get Columbia to drop any patent lawsuits against Victor, and arrange a cross-licensing agreement, before he sold Burt back to them.

-Bill

Thank you gentlemen. If I had been alive in 1901/2 I think I would like to have been a patent lawyer .

Lucius1958 wrote:This was from the famous Victor/Columbia "feud" of 1901. Johnson bought out the Burt Co. pressing plant from Columbia (when Columbia's Edward Easton was out of town, iirc), and had all the Climax matrices smuggled out and stamped VTM.

Johnson then used these as leverage to get Columbia to drop any patent lawsuits against Victor, and arrange a cross-licensing agreement, before he sold Burt back to them.

-Bill

That's a really short version of a long and colorful piece of recording history. Someone once told me a longer version and it really is a great story.

I bet the lawyers were as busy back then as they were over smartphones a couple of years ago...