1. The first was a double-sided record, available in both 7" and 10" sizes, usually pressed out of the same material as Nicole Records (though some later ones are reported to be solid shellac pressings), and using the same masters. (Pic. 1). They appear to have used various coloured labels of this same design, sometimes mixing the colours on either side of the same record ! The earliest were made by Nicole Freres in 1905-06 before their collapse, following which The Disc Record Company, who bought all the Nicole masters and pressing equipment, continued manufacturing Empire records at their factory in Stockport until 1909. It is thought they may have been made for J.G. Graves of Sheffield. Graves was a mail-order store better known for (later) selling Ariel records.
Empires which state "Made in London" are the ones made by Nicole and those which state "Made in England" (sometimes the words are only pressed into the material and not on the label) are DRC pressings.                                                       (My thanks to Norman Field for providing this label scan)

2. The second Empire label appeared in about May 1911 and used Dacapo masters (Pic. 2). These Empire records are believed to be "tally-man" records. These were sold door-to-door whereby the purchaser agreed to buy a number of the records each year (probably about 50 at about 2/6 each), in exchange for which they would get a free gramophone, which they would receive on loan at the start of the contract. The agent for these Empire records was The Empire Record Company (formerly The International Record Company) of Cowley Road, Oxford, which also had a branch in Swindon. The numbers and (mainly ) the artists credits matched those on the original Dacapo issues, and it is possible that all existing Dacapo records may have been available on Empire in theory, but whether that happened in practice, we may never know. These Empire records are very scarce. The tally-man business was effectively killed off by the record price war in 1912-13 when cheap imports at 1/6 came in.

3. The next was actually called 'New Empire' and was a Edison Bell product (the purple one shown here). These are believed to date from 1913-1915. These were manufactured forThe Manufacturers Accessories Company, and their initials MAC can be see on the label between the two flags, which was the MAC trade mark. Later issues include the trade mark registration number just above the initials.

4. The colourful one pictured here was a Piccadilly subsidiary, appearing briefly in 1931, with a catalogue running from E-1 to E-12.

5. Next there was a black flexible record, similar to Filmophone in material (thanks to Steve Paget for the image shown here). This was produced by Jack Goodson's Globe Record Company in 1931. I've never seen one; they are incredibly rare.

6. Finally another shellac, a subsidiary of Octacros, produced for Metropolitan Stores during 1935-37, with an E-100 catalogue series (the red one here).

 
"Nicole"/ DRC style
 
"Dacapo" style

"Edison Bell" style

"Piccadilly" style

Flexible (courtesy Steve Paget)


"Octacros" Style