The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently acquired a quantity of Pygmo-Disques from an eBay seller in France.
They are about 6 inches in diameter, and all but one are solid stock shellac. The odd one out has a blue and gold label, and appears to be laminated with a plastic surface not unlike a Nicole or a Duophone. The records are in numbered sets of two or three, stored in cardboard folders with their contents listed on the reverse.
Very small records were generally intended for children, but the repertoire on these consists mainly of band and orchestral recordings.
Information about them is proving difficult to find.

The similarly named 5.5 inch Pigmy records were made in England by Crystalate from Mimosa masters, but who made Pygmo-Disques? The monogram pictured appears on their record covers. Does anyone recognise it?

I have a bunch of these records, but all shellac and with the light blue label as the ones in your photo. From what I recall most were children songs, including the one you post J'ai du Bon Tabac (I guess children at that time had to listen to weird songs). CIC was a French company that sold cheap children gramophones, like the ones in the photo below. It is not hard to find these machines today, but they are all systematically in horrendous shape, as they were tin-made toys that did not survive well the ravages of time, rust and childhandling.

Thank you Carlos. I also have a Bing Pigmyphone, which sounds horrendous, and a couple of the British Pigmy records.

The French Pygmophone looks quite similar to the German Bing Pigmyphone but is a completely different company and also has a different motor. Please see attached pictures I found on the Internet at some time in the past. I also have a few of these records with the light blue label.

Andreas

alang wrote: Sat Nov 11, 2023 4:14 pm The French Pygmophone looks quite similar to the German Bing Pigmyphone but is a completely different company and also has a different motor. Please see attached pictures I found on the Internet at some time in the past. I also have a few of these records with the light blue label.

Andreas

Thank you Andreas. That must be a rare machine indeed. I have now had time to play the Pygmo-Disques on a full size machine.
Both the volume and the recording quality are better than I expected. They are probably extracts dubbed from full size records.

Roger.