Polyphon - Biography

Biography - Polyphon

UK

Polyphon Records 1
Polyphon Musikwerke A.G was founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1890. It produced large music boxes suitable for commercial premises like cafes and restaurants, which produced tunes from large perforated metal disks. The trademark was registered in England in July 1900. A Polyphon machine was still operating in a South Devon seaside cafe in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The first Polyphon Records were advertised in May 1905 and shown at the industry's Autumn Fair in Leipzig.

In June 1908 much of Polyphon's instrumental catalogue (published in March 1908) became available in the UK through an agent, J. A. Williams of J.W. Williams Ltd, 92 Hatton Garden, London.

In December 1908, Polyphon announced that it was preparing to record a British repertoire for its catalogue, but nothing further was announced throughout 1909. For the first issues of Polyphon's later British repertoire, we need to examine the Klingsor company.

Klingsor Records
The Klingsor trademark for gramophones had been registered in Britain in January 1908. It was the trade mark for machines produced by Krebs and Klenk of Germany, and a works was set up at 22-24 Tabernacle Street, London EC by the appointed British Agent. In May 1910, construction of a recording studio was started at Klingsor's works, and in August it was announced that Polyphon records would soon be available from the London works of Klingsor as the new British agent for Polyphon.

However, when these records finally appeared, they appeared under a 'Klingsor Record' label, apparently with the approval of Polyphon.These gold printed black labels had the Polyphon trademark above the centre hole.The initial Klingsor catalogue of September 1910 listed 174 records, of which 54 had been recorded in London. The remainder were predominantly German recordings and some had already been issued on the Polyphon label. They were issued using an 8500 series of disc numbers.

Polyphon Records 2
In October 1911, the Klingsor Records began to be converted back to Polyphon again. There was an overlap of about three months before all records became Polyphon, and only one disc is known where the Klingsor catalogue number contains different recordings to the same Polyphon catalogue number. The British trade press announced Polyphon Records as a new label, in spite of the issues available from J W Williams Ltd in 1908 and 1909, which were not widely advertised.

In May 1912, London recordings began to be issued with a face number (ie not a disc serial number) of 24000, which may indicate a new recording studio. In December 1912 Polyphon announced a new catalogue of 1000 titles, and a new numerical series commenced starting at serial number 5501. The old 8500 series had reached 8896, but there was an unexplained gap of 100 numbers, with 8997 to 8999 also being issued.

Pilot Records
Polyphon applied for a 'Pilot Record' trademark in November 1912, which was granted in March 1913. In June it was announced that Polyphon Records would become Pilot Records. Loss of stock was avoided by using a small sticker on Polyphon records remaining in the catalogue announcing this.

By the start of the 1913-14 record industry trading season around September/October, many cheap labels had come onto the market with prices as low as 1 shilling (£0.05). In response Polyphon reduced the price of its Pilot records from 2/6d (£0.125) to 1/1d (£0.055).

The last Pilot supplement to be published was in July 1914, with the highest record known being 5846. Further activity ended with the start of WW1.

Other Labels
Polyphon masters appeared under other 'stencilled' client labels in the UK. They are known to be on Alexander Records, Ariel Grand Records, Crown Records, and The Stars' Record.

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