Earliest copies have a "Deep Plum" coloured sleeve background, whereas even the only slightly later copies have a red background colour.
Images
Number:1153093 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By:Magic Marmalade Description: Clifford Curzon With London Symphony Orchestra - Grieg Piano Concerto - Front Cover (Later Red Cover - Eralier Ones Are "Plum" Coloured
Number:1153102 Uploaded By:Magic Marmalade Description: Clifford Curzon With London Symphony Orchestra - Grieg Piano Concerto - Back Cover
Number:1153103 Uploaded By:Magic Marmalade Description: Clifford Curzon With London Symphony Orchestra - Grieg Piano Concerto - Label - Side 1
Number:1153104 Uploaded By:Magic Marmalade Description: Clifford Curzon With London Symphony Orchestra - Grieg Piano Concerto - Label - Side 2
Number:1157020 Uploaded By:keebrev Description: Another A-side label, with J/T code
Number:1157021 Uploaded By:keebrev Description: Another B-side label, with J/T code
Number:1157285 Uploaded By:AlbertSwaps Edited By:Jace59 Description: flipback (lousy pic from mobile phone)
...An idea you might try if you're having trouble with the entry page:
Have a glance over your copy and see that they match these: Track Titles, Composers, record title, and confirm it here in this comments section, but adding the Mono LXT cat#, and I'll do the entry for the mono, then some kind mod can move your image over to that entry, and you can add others then if you want, to round it out.
...I'd be interested to know if your sleeve has a plum or red cover, as the back seems an intermediary non-scalloped flip-back between this non-flip, and the earliest scalloped flip.
flipback added, red front cover, the record is mono but I don't particularly want to add all the details again if there is a risk the input screen will bomb out.
Thanks for posting that link... clears things up a little more.
I did find an SXL from about 1972-73, which I passed on, as when I picked it up, at first I wondered if there was actually a record in it at all!... it was so floppy. And having taken it out of the sleeve, it was practically a flexi-disc, it was so painfully thin vinyl.
I think this is when the oil shortage happened, and it seems both classical, and Decca in particular got hit hardest, as what resources they had were obviously directed to more profitable - or at the very least, more commercially efficient - items in their catalogue - rock and pop.
Ahumm... "Plum" sleeve means as dark as Eastern purple?, Well, mines is just as red as yours.
The matrix numbers are ZAL-4599-5W and ZAL-4600-7W, exactly the same.
The letters are indeed different, you can guess Mr. Curzon complaint about the size of the lettertype. So Decca did make the same lettertype as the title letters.
Ah, so that's what the "ED" stands for... as it refered to the progression of label changes I always assumed it meant: "Edition", or something along those lines...
You learn something new every day!
(I'm mostly blagging my way through classical vinyl, trying to learn as I go... so always happy to hear from more knowledgeable people)
...I assume therefore, that the "English Dark" refers to the colour name of the label.
Just bear in mind that my scanner has produced some strange effects with the labels, so might be difficult to distinguish differences accurately... but yours do have a different text lay-out too... does yours have a the earlier "Plum" sleeve, or the red one I've uploaded?
-And how about the matrices... do they end with an earlier "W" number? -
Here's a better copy of the labels. Did you notice the different labels on each side of the record? The B-side label is what they called a ED2 (English Dark2); the other something in between ED1 and ED2, so I will suppose ED1 1/2. It has the Decca notes on the label just like ED1, but the style is like ED2.
Mark the J/T tax code ( a little bit earlier?)
I feel I must apologise for these scans... Both my scanner, and ICE hate Decca covers and labels.
The scanner hates the labels as the reflective silver bands, which contrast against the black of the label, cause that "shine" to bleed over into the black areas, and ICE hates the covers because they usually feature block colours, and very simple designs...
...both of which are a great feature of the records to look at, but a nightmare to get images of.