Nicole - Biography

Biography - Nicole

UK

Unbreakable discs, issued 1903 to 1906. See also Nicole France

Nicole Freres were originally established in 1815 in Geneva, Switzerland and produced musical boxes and other mechanical novelties. In 1897 they founded a London branch, Nicole Freres Ltd. This imported phonographs and gramophones including Frank Seaman's Zon-O-Phone machines and discs, but when Seaman's Zon-O-Phone and International Zonophone companies were wound up through legal actions in 1903, they started their own machine and disc production rather than buying from other companies.

The Nicole Record Company was founded in London in July 1903 producing its discs from a patent granted in June 1903 to George Burt (founder of Crystalate) and Carl Krieger, who became Directors of the company with with Rudolph Eckhart.

The 7 inch single sided Nicole Record was the first disc to be manufactured in England - all others were manufactured in the USA or Germany.

The first series starting at around 1000 became available in October 1903. Lower numbers are recordings made by Eckhart in Germany in early 1903, which became available around the same time. A German 3000 series of 10 inch discs from Eckhart's recordings was also produced in late 1903. The British 4000 series became available in January 1904. A 5000 and 5500 series of 10 inch records became available in March 1904, followed by a 10 inch 6000 series.

A German mixed 7" and 10" 4000 series was produced from Eckhart's recordings.

The Nicole 7 inch double-sided D series was introduced in November 1905. All records appear to be couplings of recordings previously released as single sided discs.

A 7000 series of 7 and 10 inch discs was produced for Sweden, with a 7500 series for France. A C prefix series was produced for India from recordings made there between 1904-1905.

The Nicole Record Company was wound up in May 1906, after its' parent Nicole Freres experienced great financial difficulties. However John Watson Hawd, a former director, formed a new company and Nicole discs continued to be produced either under the same name, or recordings on different labels, until around 1916.

Dating
No precise dating information has been published.

The 4000 series was released in January 1904.The highest known number is 4676 so the listing here uses 4350 as the start for 1905 releases.

The Nicole 7 inch double-sided D series was introduced in November 1905, so all this series may be dated as 1906 with reasonable accuracy.

Source: "Nicole Record" by Michael Kinnear, Victoria,Australia 2001

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