[78-L] HMV catalog/archive?

[Malcolm Rockwell]

To answer my own question, the City of London Phonograph & Gramophone 
Society (CLPGS) has both the HMV B & BD series lists for sale at $70 and 
$45, respectively. The E series is also available but I'm not sure if 
the EA issues are covered in it.
http://www.clpgs.org.uk/bookshop_temp_page.htm
That was too easy.
Mal

*******

On 7/7/2010 6:13 AM, Malcolm Rockwell wrote:
> Thanks, Benno.
> I'd love to go on a field trip to England, if I could get someone to pay
> for it!
> I have lots of collector/historian/discographer friends there I've never
> met.
> What I really need are song title/matrix&  issue number lists of B, BD
> and EA issue series recordings produced in 1920s-1930s. Perhaps the
> CLPGS may have these. I'm checking.
> Mal
>
> *******
>
> On 7/5/2010 10:01 AM, goldenbough at arcor.de wrote:
>    
>> Malcolm,
>> there are indeed plenty of catalogs around listing what was issued, but there is no catalog
>> of what they actually have in their archive.
>>
>> You would think that they have everything they issued, but this is not the case. For example,
>> the HMV AX series of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian material:  they only have about
>> 60% (my guess).
>> On the other hand, they have also runs of, say, Turkish Columbia RT series (with which they
>> legally had nothing to do). Or records which the HMV Dum Dum plant in Calcutta (now: Kolkata)
>> pressed. I suppose that these series were sent them as a courtesy. And even in all these series
>> 40% seems to be missing.
>>
>> I have a photo of the Victor 38.000 Blues series there (at the old premises), where these $5000
>> records were leaning at a 45 degrees angle in the shelves!
>>
>> In short: they have most of what they issued, plus some from other companies.
>>
>> Same is true for paperwork. Binders with correspondnce are there, but were obviously not
>> systematically kept.  1904 may be well documented, and then maybe 1905, for an unknown
>> reason, is not.
>>
>> As a matter of fact, they don't even know what they have. You'd have to make an appointment
>> with them and check on the spot.
>>
>> Benno
>>
>>
>>