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Occasionally when I buy records they come in the original sleeve that they were sold with, and I have been quite fortunate to get a few lovely examples of then. My favourite few are below, the HMV one depicts 4 types of uprights, the 203, 163 (oak and mahogany) and the 202 in oak.

Since the text on the HMV side is too small I've typed it below.

"The world's greatest pianists, violinists, opera and concert stars, orchestras and conductors are waiting to entertain you on "His Master's Voice".
The great achievement of electrical recording has extended the scope of what may be reproduced. To the imposing array of the delights of the gramophone are now added the Grand Organ, notable Choirs, records of actual performances in famous Catherals and other public buildings.

Whether your taste in music be serious or gay (Does that mean that jazz music loves have a gay taste in music? ), you can enjoy the best on "His Master's Voice" records. And to hear them as the artists indented you should play them on the new HMV Gramophone with the Re-entrant tone chamber.

****

"The new HMV Gramophone with the re-entrant tone chamber represents an immense advancement in the science of sound reproduction. Sound box, tone arm and tone chamber are all entirely new in design. The prinsiple of "Matched Impedance" (by which an unobstructed pathway is made for the sound waves after they leave the diaphragm of the sound box) is applied throughout. It is the only gramophone so constructed

It sounds to me as though they were trying to wow the buyers with big words that sound good!

Finally, the last one is a mystery. Anyone ever heard of Gillett as a record company?

Great sleeves...that Gillete one I have never seen before nor have I ever seen one of their records. The first sleeve (the "waiting to perform for you") I am sure I have seen a similar graphic used on a victor sleeve from the same period. I wonder if HMV and Victor share not only metal masters but also graphics such as these.

Unfortunately all my stuff is packed away at the moment so I can dig out the sleeve I mean and scan it

S-B-H

Perhaps HMV and Victor did share graphics. The Gillett sleeve came with a Biltmore record I bought from eBay (since I couldn't get the Jean Goldkette recording of "In My Merry Oldsmobile" I thought I'd buy the cheap knock off version that Victor later sued for )

Perhaps it was a shop?

I'm sure the people in this forum on the other side of the Pond might be able to tell me more about this sleeve? Don't remember where I picked it up but it sure must be scarce in Iowa? I love this sleeve!!! This is one sleeve front and back.

This doesn't feature the machines on the sleeve - except that Not-So-Detailed looking picture, but this is always my favorite sleeve. It's the "Nipponophone" sleeve from early 1920s Japan. I find this somewhat cute, don't you think?

I have very few Nipponophone discs from 1910s and 20s, mostly Korean recordings (Korea was forced to be annexed to Japan in 1910, and Nipponophone practically ruled the Korean recording market from 1911 to 1925.) which are highly praised for their musical value, and yet the sound quality is extremely terrible. Some say that careless handling is the cause, but I find even pristine-looking ones sounds really bad. They also had very elegant-looking COLOR sleeve which was only for the Korean Market, but there is only one poor-condition example survived in a Korean record collector's collection.

As for the point, I have got several HMV sleeves with Feodor Chaliapin, Amelita Galli-Curci, Peter Dawson, Paul Robeson, each posed with their phonographs, but I can't find those sleeves so far.

Swing Band Heaven wrote:Great sleeves...that Gillete one I have never seen before nor have I ever seen one of their records. The first sleeve (the "waiting to perform for you") I am sure I have seen a similar graphic used on a victor sleeve from the same period. I wonder if HMV and Victor share not only metal masters but also graphics such as these.

Unfortunately all my stuff is packed away at the moment so I can dig out the sleeve I mean and scan it

S-B-H

They're very close:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyhopkin/2721442866/

The "girl about to play a record" drawing and the "Waiting to Play for You" slogan were actually used prior to the November 1925 introduction of the Orthophonic series. I was able to spot this image online:


Waiting to play for you"—Ad for Victrola: Victor Talking Machine Company, Pictorial Review, September 1925. Maja Trochimczyk Collection.
(Note, the pre-Orthophonic style lid and tonearm.)

FROM: http://www.historycooperative.org/journ ... mczyk.html

HOLY COW BATMAN!

Is it me or does the person playing the piano in your photo now look suspiciously like a man? It's like they avoided copyright trouble by sticking a moustache on her!

Talkophone, you are correct. That sleeve is pretty rare in Iowa since it comes from a dealership in the UK! I don't know what practice was accross in the US, but here in the UK there were tons of independent dealers who all made their own sleeves advertising what they sold. I've got tons in my record chest

Also, that sleeve features Gilbert Gramophones which were made by a small company in Sheffield in the 20s. Again, there's a stack of them in the UK, but in the US I'd imagine they are pretty rare.

Talkophone wrote:I'm sure the people in this forum on the other side of the Pond might be able to tell me more about this sleeve? Don't remember where I picked it up but it sure must be scarce in Iowa? I love this sleeve!!! This is one sleeve front and back.

I'm wondering if these sleeves weren't actually produced/sold by Songster?
I've got one too, but I cant seem to put my hands on it at the moment. If I remember correctly, mine has a diffent hint number on the back, but I think it's got a different stores advertising on the front.
I'm not 100% on that, but Sam Melling doesn't ring any bells. I'll have to find it & check. They're a pretty good quality heavy sleeve, so I've probably got a record in it I considered special in some way, and didn't want getting broken.
Maybe Songster offered a deal to store owners that sold their needles at some stage, that included advertising for that store on the front?
I wonder how many "gramophone hints" there were also?

Back to the search

While we are talking sleeves here, did Berliner discs and other early discs such as Monarchs come in sleeves when they were new? I've never seen any sleeves prior to 'Patents' labels that I can recall, although I once had a pair of magnificent early Victor 12" albums with green cloth covers embossed with the 'His Master's Voice' logo in gold; rounded, not flat, spines embossed 'Victor Records'; and only six rather thick, stiff, marbleized paper sleeves inside -- definitely pre-1906 external horn era.