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A very scarce British label available from 1915 until 1920. collectors often joke that the label is a different design on each one found. While this is an exaggeration, there do seem to be quite a few different designs and the records themselves turn up very rarely. All Bulldog records were pressed by Crystalate. The Bull Dog record company was set up by recording engineer and musician William Ditcham and music-hall singer Harry Bluff in the autumn of 1914. The obvious trademark of a Bulldog's head could not be used (probably due to the John Bull records using it) and instead they used the image of a Royal Navy Seaman. The first records were issued in October 1915 costing 1/6, and used the two-tone blue label (see left) which includes the new trade mark. Note that the label name does have a space between the words "Bull" and "Dog", which was absent from all the later designs. [Style 1]. In adverts for the time, the company is styled "The Bull Dog Record Co. Ltd" The etched "label" style was introduced in December 1915 or January 1916. Initially these had red infill [style2]; this was later replaced by white infill by May 1916 [style 3]. Neither carry a trade mark, presumably as this would be too complicated to etch. It was reported in April 1917 that the etched centres had a new design with gold infill. I have not seen an image of one of these, but about this time there was a new design using a standard label in black with gold printing and this may be to what the report refers [style 4]. This label seems to have been in use for a very short period of time before being replaced by probably the most attractive design used which was yellow (or, in some cases, orange) with dark blue upper section [style5], which in itself was probably only in use briefly. After the October 1917 supplement, there was no mention of Bulldog records in any trade journals until October 1919 and it may be this is when the final label, green on a white background, was introduced [style 6]. The hiatus was due in part to a fire at Crystalate's factory and also the effects of the war on some industries. The price was now advertised as "still 2/6" implying the price increase from 1/6 had happened some months before. The catalogue numbering may have jumped to re-start at 650 as well, as no Bulldog records have been found between 638 and 649. Until this point, all Bulldog records used their own masters, in a series starting at 101, recorded in London. However, at this time, Norwegian masters, using a K-2000 series, stared to appear on Bulldog records. These had been recorded for the SOL label. The link between these two labels is Oscar Preuss, who produced SOL records and had also been William Ditcham's business partner during the war. It is not known if the SOL masters were recorded in London or Norway. The last Bulldog records were issued in June 1920, the highest catalogue number being 686. Some Bulldog masters (including ones which never appeared on Bulldog records), can be found on early Imperial records,  which started two years later and for which one of the directors was William Ditcham. Ditcham remained recording manager for Imperial until 1930 when his place was taken by Arthur Haddy. Bulldog records cost 1/6 initially, though the two specials by Horatio Bottomley cost 2/6. Some time between October 1917 and October 1919, the price of Bulldog records was increased to 2/6. I am interested in trying to ascertain when the label styles changed; this can be done by noting the highest number seen for each style. Here is what I have found so far: Style 1: Blue label -        highest 543     (ref: NF) Style 2: red etched -      highest 565     (ref: NF) Style 3: white etched -  highest 604     (thanks to Jim Hawkins for this information) Style 4: black label -      highest 621 Style 5: yellow label -    highest 637 Style 6: white/green label - 650 to end. My good friend Norman Field has an inordinate number of Bulldog records and as such has provided me with the highest numbers so far for the first two styles above. The full story of Bulldog records by Frank Andrews can be found in the CLPGS magazine "For The Record" issues 36, 37 & 38, from which this summary has been extracted. My thanks to Steve Walker for the style 6 scan and to Norman Field for the styles 3 & 4 scans.

Style 1             Style 2      Style 3      Style 4      Style 5     Style 6 The  two images below were sent to me by Rob van Beek

This is an attempt at a listing. Please e-mail me if you can help me with any further information.
My thanks to the following for their help: Frank Andrews, Paul Buck, Graham Farnell, Norman Field, Robert Girling, Michael Gunrem, Mike Jones, Graham Meachen, Albert Pattison, Richard Prout.

This page last updated on: November 19, 2023

Special series: these may be the only two issues. I have seen these with white etched style "labels", but Norman Field tells me his copies are either green-infilled etched or plain etched with no infill.

Standard series: