The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is an experiment to see if an old technophobe can add a picture to a post.
Hopefully you will see a rare label which is not yet on the Gallery.
If you can't, it's back to the drawing board!

The record was pressed by the German Homophone Company of Berlin from masters recorded on 22 September 1926.

Although probably not made for the UK market, it is possible that a dealer imported a batch for sale to the Jewish community here.

A very helpful collector of cantorial recordings has confirmed that Rafael Ruwinsky was indeed Chief Cantor at the Choral Temple in Bucharest during the 1920's.

The system works!
More labels in due course........

epigramophone wrote: The record was pressed by the German Homophone Company of Berlin from masters recorded on 22 September 1926.

Although probably not made for the UK market, it is possible that a dealer imported a batch for sale to the Jewish community here.

Beautiful and scarce label indeed, especially in this condition! Your record was pressed by Kalliope Musikwerke A. G. of Leipzig for the export to Romania. A reimport to the UK is very unlikely. Perhaps it came there with a Jewish refugee before WW II.

Unfortunately I know nothing about who previously owned this record. It was a lucky find in a job lot purchased at a flea market several years ago.

The majority of the records were acoustic. As well as the usual HMV Red Label celebrities, I found among many treasures Cavalieri, Destinn, Maria Gay and Zenatello on Columbia Grand Opera, plus Bendinelli, Cattorini, Finzi-Magrini, Formichi, Martino and Paganelli on Columbia-Rena. There were also various early dance band records from Confrey to Whiteman.

The seller requested "Twenty quid for the lot, mate." I paid him and went on my way rejoicing.

This by now is a well known label. I've seen it posted on several other forums too. These records were made for illegal house meetings, when judaeism was outlawed in many a country. There are quite a lot of this record around by the way. Jewish people helped one another out wherever they could, supporting small communities to keep their faith alive. This particular record is rare, but not extremely so. I had a few comparable ones, the last recorded in Germany during WW2!