[78-L] The Record Collector. Vol. 53 No. 3. BELHOMME.

[Chris Zwarg]

>
>Knowing how apparently without any logic at all 
>that Pathé seemed to run their catalogue numbers, 
>how were the recording dates, as accurately as 
>the month, ascertained?

By looking at the lowest transfer-to-disc number for each session. These work very much like the "M3-" numbers used by EMI's Chatou/France pressing plant (which was in fact the old Pathé works!). All pantographical transfers from the (quasi-randomly allocated) master-cylinders to disc masters were done in one single studio at Chatou and were sequentially numbered, no matter where they were recorded originally. All titles from a freshly recorded session will have one set of transfer-numbers pretty close to each other (as obviously at least one matrix of any new title had to be made reasonably close in time to the recording session itself). Of course, higher transfer numbers (of later replacement matrices) also exist, so it is important to assemble as many of them as possible to get a reasonably correct date.

The transfer-number sequence runs from no. 1 in April 1905 through 99,999 in very early 1914. Instead of moving on to 100,000, they decided to start over again at 1 but prefix the number with a "14" for the year 1914. This new sequence continues through 1915 with the prefix appropriately changing to "15". At that point, the War stopped production for a while, and the next new issues (in late 1917) look very different, with paper labels and different average rpm.

The fact that dating etched-label Pathés works *only* through the transfer-numbers (except for a few sessions dateable by outside sources such as artist's diaries, trade-press announcements, etc.) was sadly overlooked by most earlier discographers, who usually left them out from their lists as irrelevant.

>Secondly, in response to his request for more 
>transfer serial numbers, I offer these...
>
>55. 4554 (9913BC).
>91. 354. (40827GR).
>139. 400. (43516GR).

...and these are discs of WHICH size? (they are all intermixed in the single transfer-nr. sequence)?

>I also own...
>
>104. 703...
>
>...issued on DISQUES HENRI 6.

Thank you, Earl, I will gladly forward this info to Larry at TRC to print as a supplement to the current DG.

Chris Zwarg