[78-L] Advent of Electrical Recording

[Jamie Kelly]

Speaking of red G&T  discs, I've only found 2 Melba picture covers that
match the disc over the years. I assume there are picture covers for other
artists Caruso, Patti etc? From memory I have the "Mad Scene" set Pt 1 and 2
and several takes were issue of part 1.

Jamie



-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Michael Quinn
Sent: Monday, 25 January 2010 10:56 PM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] Advent of Electrical Recording

Matthew Duncan wrote:

>I believe the first Gilbert and Sullivan album set with a pictorial cover
was "The Mikado" on HMV, 1917.  Prior to this album sets were issued on HMV
without pictorial covers.   The earliest of these held single sided discs
such as Verdi's 'Ernarni' on HMV from 1903, the label's first complete
recording of an opera as opposed to issuing excepts from them was issued in
a more plain cover than the 1917 G&S one mentioned above and was made up of
40 single sided discs.  I believe the discs were 12" in size and were G&T
labelled records (pre-Nipper logo).
>
>Matthew Duncan.
>England.
>
>
>
>
>_
>
The November 1918 HMV UK catalogue lists the following sets as being
provided in illustrated albums -

In A Persian Garden (Liza Lehmann)
Merrie England (Edward German)
The Boatswain's Mate (Ethel Smythe)
The Mikado (Gilbert & Sullivan)
    The only one I recollect seeing was the Merrie England which had an
attractive multi-colour pictorial art cover.

Concerning earlier opera sets - I have seen pre World War 1 Pathè sets
without no specific decoration or art work There were early sets on German
G&T and Odeon but I have not seen them. 
The mentioned set of Ernani  on 40 sides is a fantasy and sadly does not
exist.
Early celebrity HMV vocals often had a picture of the singer attached to the
rather flimsy paper covers of the day. Also Fonotipia featured pictures of
the singer pasted onto their early covers back to about 1905. With Victor
you have those pictures of Melba, Tamagno and Patti revealed when the disc
is removed from  the red card cover which has a glassine window over the
label hole.
Regards
Mike Quinn
_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l