Gregorius
2009-05-26 21:19:14 UTC
At the risk of asking something vaguely ON topic, I've been going
through my classical 78 collection for de-accessionable items, and
I've come up with a quandary--how do you tell "wartime" 78s? Keeping
it to Victor, obviously Victrola Scrolls (Orthophonic) are pre-32,
Victor Scrolls are pre-war and RCA Victor circle labels are post-war,
but then you have the Victor circle labels in between. I thought a
reliable indicator was that the bright gold label printing would be
pre-war and the duller gold "washed" printing would be wartime, but
when I started comparing them to album styles, it got confusing
because the bright gold labels were not only in the "lyre" albums
generally associated with late Scrolls, but also in the later embossed-
cardboard style albums.
So, the question is actually several: When did Victor switch from the
bright gold labels to the gold-washed ones? And when did the album
style change from the lyre style to the embossed style? A side
question would be, although the color-printed albums are all wartime
or later, exactly when DID Victor start producing them?
through my classical 78 collection for de-accessionable items, and
I've come up with a quandary--how do you tell "wartime" 78s? Keeping
it to Victor, obviously Victrola Scrolls (Orthophonic) are pre-32,
Victor Scrolls are pre-war and RCA Victor circle labels are post-war,
but then you have the Victor circle labels in between. I thought a
reliable indicator was that the bright gold label printing would be
pre-war and the duller gold "washed" printing would be wartime, but
when I started comparing them to album styles, it got confusing
because the bright gold labels were not only in the "lyre" albums
generally associated with late Scrolls, but also in the later embossed-
cardboard style albums.
So, the question is actually several: When did Victor switch from the
bright gold labels to the gold-washed ones? And when did the album
style change from the lyre style to the embossed style? A side
question would be, although the color-printed albums are all wartime
or later, exactly when DID Victor start producing them?