Mike, your serif-font labels represent the original release:
1908-1910 Magic Notes label (Columbia Phonograph Company Gen’l) with 4 patent dates in two lines, cf. M. Sherman & K. Nauck, "Note the Notes," page 26.
Columbia Grafonola is between 1917 and 1923. I could tell you more, Roland Lavallee, once you upload your copy. And yes, we do upload images of later variants of the same catalog number to the same entry here (unlike Discogs).
Thanks again, Neil Forbes. Interestingly, you associate the modern "Walking Eye" Columbia/CBS logo with a "speaker on a stand". Looking at the first design of that logo, I can understand that, although something else was meant, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Records:
With 1954, Columbia USA decisively broke with its past when it introduced its new, modernist-style "Walking Eye" logo, designed by Columbia's art director S. Neil Fujita. This logo actually depicts a stylus (the legs) on a record (the eye); however, the "eye" also subtly refers to CBS's main business in television, and that division's iconic Eye logo. Columbia continued to use the "notes and mike" logo on record labels and even used a promo label showing both logos until the "notes and mike" was phased out (along with the 78 in the US) in 1958. ... The original Walking Eye was tall and solid; it was modified in 1960 to the familiar one still used today, despite the fact that the Walking Eye was not used during most of the 1990s.
Adding to what I've already said about the Columbia Graphophone label, an interesting turnabout comes during the 1950s when American CBS recordings are no longer going to their British "namesake", rather, they're showing up on Philips and (later), Fontana, meaning the American arm has now gone its separate way and the link with its British "saviour" is now well-and-truly severed. Comes the 1960s and the now-giant American CBS is looking to establish itself in Britain, buying up the small Oriole outfit and converting it into CBS (UK) Ltd. And that's where the story ended... for the time being... until several decades later when Japanese electronics firm Sony opened wide and swallowed CBS in one gulp! (burp!)
I noted in the examples shown, the earlier ones had "New York - London" on the label. This bears out what I said in my notes about the British arm then turning around and helping to re-establish the Columbia name in the USA. The US company that made those early 78s was the fore-runner to one-half of EMI but it would be that American early company that went ker-blooey while the British arm thrived and became a separate company in its own right (until its merger with The Gramophone Co., in 1938 to form EMI). The Columbia of the 1950s in the USA does not have a line of ancestry back to that earlier label. The Columbia Records of today (now swallowed up by Sony) owes its existence to the Pre-EMI British arm which became that separate British-owned entity which helped to re-establish the brand in the USA.
As for the trademark we became familiar with in the 1960s, the trademark straddled the spindle-hole on orange-label discs that replaced the Coronet label in 1962 (but were still briefly using Coronet serial prefixes). The label we had was based on the Brit. LP design, and that trademark had been described elsewhere as a "speaker on a stand" thought it could've been described as an eye.
Fine summary of the Columbia history, Neil Forbes. However, what you label as "speaker on a stand" design was actually meant as a microphone, and this design was introduced about a decade before the first 45 records. Moreover, the new label still included the Magic Notes. There are some examples, with the explaining text, "With the purchase of ARC by CBS the Columbia name was revitalized and a new "microphone" label was introduced. This would endure from 1939-1958. ..." on this site: http://majesticrecord.com/labelscolumbia2.htm
Actually RC, This IS the USA organisation! Columbia Graphophone was established in the USA, then set up a branch in the UK. It's ironic but the UK branch became the new "headquarters" when the American parent company faltered and failed. It was then the turn of the now-British company to re-establish the Columbia name in the USA (did someone just mutter something about "coals to Newcastle"?) and the new American company had to "lease" the magic notes trademark from the British establishment. This they did for several years until the 45rpm era when the American arm, now a separate entity (history repeating itself) and operating a TV and radio network, had to come up with a new trademark, that's where the stylised "speaker on a stand" design came into the picture. Meanwhile, back in England... well, I've already covered that chapter!
Interesting the name at the bottom of this label. Under this name the company moved to England and became embedded there, while the US operation faltered and went belly-up. The British newly-independent company operated as rivals to, then in 1938 formed an alliance (merger) with The Gramophone Company, owners of the "Nipper"(HMV) trademark, to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. Prior to that merger, members of the British "Columbia" outfit went over to the USA to help re-establish the brand there, and that's how CBS eventually came about, first as a radio broadcaster, then as a record label (albeit losing use of the Magic Notes trademark after a while).
Both sides had been released before on single-faced records ("Manisot March", mx/cat# 30, ca. 1901; "Liberty Bell March", mx/cat# 478, ca. 1901), but the "A" prefix double-faced series didn't start before 1908. Different takes of "Liberty Bell March" were recorded and released over the years (1901-08). Columbia A118 is said to include take 8, probably recorded in one of the later years, see http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/.