The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

“On This Day in the History of Recorded Sound…”

January 1, 1873: Born: Fred Gaisberg, musician, recording engineer, and pioneer producer of classical and world music.

https://www.antiquephono.org/#/

Fred's autobiography, "The Music Goes Round" chronicling FG's early years as a recording technician for the Gramophone Co. is a fascinating read.
Online copy for downloading -- https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 9/mode/2up

Thanks for that much improved image! With your permission, I'll substitute it for the one I've been using each January 1st.

George P.

phonogfp wrote: Thu Jan 01, 2026 12:09 pm Thanks for that much improved image! With your permission, I'll substitute it for the one I've been using each January 1st.

George P.

Sure, go ahead. I enhanced it with the online tool I wrote about here -- viewtopic.php?t=62152

It does an excellent job, compared to earlier versions by other companies, though it sometimes takes me a few tries before I'm satisfied with the results. For some strange reason I've yet to figure out, I have to open the unblurred image file in Paint and then copy and paste it into a new/fresh image file before posting it on this forum.

OrthoFan

Thanks! I must admit that I'm quite deficient technologically. I've never even posted a video. I don't know how...

George P.

I had dinner at Rule's last week, in Maiden Lane (London). Gaisberg established the world's first purpose-designed recording studio next door, and had a loud-voiced barmaid from Rule's help in setting up equipment. I believe there's a marker, but on Google Earth, there's a delivery van parked blocking the view.

Hi Nat --

Here's some information about the plaque -- https://www.emiarchivetrust.org/rock-ro ... ng-studio/

This image shows the rather hard to spot plaque. (Click to enlarge).

The barmaid was Syria Lamonte, hers were among the first records made in London. As said by Brian Rust.
If memory doesn't fail...
EDIT:
It didn't fail. I've been lurking inthe web and here is an interesting article about Syria:
https://theatreheritage.org.au/on-stage ... ing-artist

I studied the AI enhanced image and having been familiar with Gaisberg in photographs for many years, the enhanced image does not quite look like Gaisberg. Don't know what it is but something is missing.

The young Gaisberg has a youthful exuberance and the expression on his face was very distinctive.

Governor Flyball wrote: Wed Jan 07, 2026 1:12 am I studied the AI enhanced image and having been familiar with Gaisberg in photographs for many years, the enhanced image does not quite look like Gaisberg. Don't know what it is but something is missing.

The young Gaisberg has a youthful exuberance and the expression on his face was very distinctive.

I agree that the enhancement took some liberties. While the overall shape of the face and features such as the hair, forehead, cheekbones, ears, chin, mustache, etc., seem to be the same, the prominent differences I see are the eyes and mouth. In the blurry original, the eyes are wide open, staring intensely, almost a "caught in the headlights" expression; in the cleaned up version, they are more relaxed looking with a slight "twinkle." In the original, the lips are obscured, and you really can't tell what the expression is or what the shape or size of the lips are. In the enhanced version, the lips are well defined and there is a definite "slight smile."

Based on the online photos of the "young" Fred Gaisberg I spotted--none really clear--his face also seems slightly rounder; more filled out, but that may be due to the lighting when the photos were taken. If you have any of FG, could you post them?

OrthoFan