Zonophone - Biography

Biography - Zonophone

UK

Note: Double-sided UK Zonophone serial numbers go from 1 to 2999, and then jump to 5000. A serial number in the range 3000 to 4999 indicates an export issue (see final pages).

The first Zonophone records and machines were imported into Britain from America in 1899 or later. They came from Frank Seaman's Universal Talking Machine Company of Albany, New York State. Seaman was involved in claims and counter-claims with other companies over patent infringement, and the company eventually became bankrupt. Seaman's export agents were the Prescott brothers. In 1901 one of the brothers (Frederick Prescott) formed The International Zonophone Company, which was incorporated in New Jersey, and a factory to produce records was established in Germany, producing its first records in September 1901. Over the next two years, agencies were established throughout Europe and in Asia Minor, Egypt, Brazil, and Argentina that also produced recordings of material from their area of location. The German-produced records were also imported into Britain.

In the last half of 1903, The International Zonophone Company was reformed as a German company, a subsidiary of The Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd (G&T, later known as HMV), with Deutsche Grammophon AG as a sister company. Masters were also made available to Eldridge Johnson's USA Victor company, which released them using the original label name Zon-o-phone. In early 1904, G&T established a sub-division, The British Zonophone Company, to oversee the Zonophone products, and appointed American-born Louis Sterling (later to be Sir Louis and Head of EMI) - as General Manager. Sterling compiled the first British Zonophone catalogue of single-sided records from existing International Zonophone records and earlier and newly recorded G&T material that became available in March 1904. Zonophone produced both 7- and 10-inch records in its early years. The ten-inch series numbers were prefixed by an 'X'; the 7-inch numbers had no prefix. Confusingly, both 7- and 10-inch records had their own set of the same number ranges. No connection to G&T was ever shown on single-sided Zonophones; G&T continued to produce their own line of records.

In March 1908, the label design was changed from plain gold print on green, to include a Zonophone cross pattern, like the engraving on the rear.

In June 1908, 12-inch records started to be issued, and a new line of Zonophones commenced. Initially called Zonophone Celebrity, they became Zonophone Grand Opera from September.

The Twin
G&T (now renamed The Gramophone Company and better known as HMV) faced many other companies producing double-sided records. Thus, it established The Twin Record Company, keeping their involvement as quiet as possible. The first 10-inch double-sided "The Twin"s were issued in August 1908. Many of the artists on the Twin label appeared under aliases.

Zonophone-The Twin
In May 1911, The Twin was amalgamated with Zonophone, and The Gramophone Co.'s double-sided Zonophone record line became Zonophone-The Twin from June 1911. Normal single-sided production was abandoned except for the Grand Opera series, which continued for another couple of years.

The initial Zonophone-The Twin catalogue consisted of recordings from Twin and also some recordings from the Zonophone single-sided catalogue converted into double-sided records. Subsequent issues carried new recordings and more single-sided conversions.

Zonophone Records
In July 1920, the label pattern was changed to show the His Masters Voice logo, and The Twin part of the name was dropped. This label style lasted for four years. In July 1924 the HMV logo was dropped and was replaced by the letter Z in filgree in the top left quarter, with the letter R in filigree in the top right quarter.

Regal-Zonophone
In 1932, as a result of the formation of EMI from Columbia and HMV, Zonophone was merged with Columbia's Regal label to form Regal-Zonophone. The first Regal Zonophone list was published in January 1933.

Dating
It is not possible to provide dating information here for single-sided records as they are numbered on a block basis, for instance Male Solo Voices on 10-inch records number from X-42000 up, while Speech Recordings are from X-41000 up, and Band Recordings from X-40000 up. So too many records would need to be listed.

For dating double-sided records the following tables may be used. The original 'The Twin' records were issued using a block-numbered scheme, with a different number on each side, so cannot be included here, although they were later released under different numbers as Zonophone-The Twin 1 to 415.

Table 1.Originally The Twin, renumbered on Zonophone-The Twin
1908: 1 - 78
1909: 79 - 196
1910: 197 -338
1911: 339 - 415

Table 2.Zonophone-The Twin
1911: 416 - 719
1912: 720 - 953
1913: 954 - 1197
1914: 1198 - 1383
1915: 1384 - 1554
1916: 1555 - 1713
1917: 1714 - 1820
1918: 1821 -1895
1919: 1896 - 1963

1920: 1964 - 2072
1921: 2073 - 2179
1922: 2180 - 2272
1923: 2273 - 2385
1924: 2386 - 2505
1925: 2506 - 2655
1926: 2656 - 2824
1927: 2825 - 2999; 5000 - 5017
1928: 5018 - 5219
1929: 5220 - 5460

1930: 5461 - 5739
1931: 5740 - 5998
1932: 5999 - 6278

12-inch
1911: A1-A39, A41
1912: A40,A42-A87
1913: A88-A127
1914: A128-A155
1915: A156-A186
1916: A187-A223
1917: A224-A242
1918: A243-A245
1919: A246-A251

1920: A252-A257
1922: A258-A267
1923: A268-A279
1924: A280-A287
1925: A288-A295
1926: A296-A300, A302-A307
1927: A301,A308-A328
1928: A329-A349
1929: A350-A373

1930: A374-A394

Main Sources
Zonophone Single Sided 1904 -1913: Frank Andrews and Ernie Bayly, 1999.
Zonophone Double Sided 1911 -1932: Frank Andrews, James Hayes and Ernie Bayly, 2006.

See Also
Forum post on Zonophone double-sided label styles and copyright stamps.

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