The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This Columbia record - A5399 Aida/Il Trovatore by Emmy Destinn and Giovanni Zenatello - appears to have autographs or signatures in the run-out area. I've never seen one like this before - what is the story?

I hope the signatures are visible in the photos - the lighting was tricky.

Various companies did this as sort of a "seal of approval" by the artist him/herself. They're signed in the master and pressed into every copy.

Oh wow! So it is the artist's actual signature in the master - very neat.
Thank you very much for the info 52089

To compete with Victor's Red Seal records, Columbia obtained the rights to issue Fonotipia and Odeon operatic recordings in the USA.
The records of these two companies usually had the artist's signatures in the wax, which therefore appeared on the Columbia pressings. It was intended as a means of preventing the manufacture of pirate copies.

Some of them were also U.S. Columbia masters, e.g. Mary Garden, or Pablo Casals, who's Columbia records were made in New York and have their sig on them.

Victor had also at least one autographed record, see viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46130

Very interesting - thanks to all for the responses and information!

Columbia included signatures in the period from about 1912 through 1913 and I thinkbthat was all. I have a bunch of 1912 Weber and Fields discs they made for Columbia when they reunited. I have some Fonotipia records from before 1910 with signatures.

But the classical artist signatures are neat. If you are a handwriting expert, you may search and compare the signature on a document with the one on the disc.

I will have to make a note of which records in my collection have signatures. I know the Fonotipias do, but there are others as well and it would be a bit tough to sift through everything to find them. I should notate it when I happen to pull one out.