The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Another strange thing from the new boxes of records is an Australian Parlophone disk dating to about 1927.

It is strange to find it in Vancouver. It is strange the two singers are Maori from New Zealand. The music is strange in that it is a blend of Maori language with 1920s Classically-influenced popular music. The two cousins, Ana Hato and Deane Warelini, have great voices.
https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/380381

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Hato

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deane_Waretini_Snr

The recordings may be from the 1920s, but the pressing seems to be later. The labels state 78 rpm. I have only seen that on pressings made in the LP era and maybe a little before that, in the late 1940s.

I had a few of those and they were found in Arizona.
I would guess that travelers picked them up while on holiday.
When I found them, I was hoping for traditional Maori music, but the labels are interesting.

James.

These are not uncommon here in the UK. Recorded in 1929 I believe and your disc dates from around then.

Others will know more detail, but the 'speed 78' marking relates to Columbia's change from speed 80 to 78 not long before then. Otherwise, as others have said, speed markings don't generally come in until the advent of 45rpm and commercial 33 1/3rpm records much later.

Pathé marked its records with speed notations sometimes, and I've seen the odd Victor that did as well. The markings should generally be taken with a healthy pinch of NaCl. I think in general speed notices were more common on paper record envelopes than on the labels. Pathé's for its etched-label discs, for instance, very helpfully urged the reader to play the record between 90 and 100 RPM. Well, that certainly narrowed things down, didn't it?

I've seen Spanish Parlophones and Odeons indicating abnormal speeds, which were assessed by the company and printed in the labels. Rare cases, though...