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The
Globophon Record company, which recorded & manufactured these records, was
based in Hanover, Germany from about 1906. Initially they issued the
records on the Globos label (q.v.) but from 1909 they started using the
Globophone Record label. Globophons never had catalogue numbers (i.e. a number common to both sides of the record), the label just showing the matrix number for each side. These were generally in a 3-digit series which the company allocated to instrmental recordings. Other groups of matrix numbers were used for different types od recordings and/or different language recordings. The earliest ones used the design like the first image (right). Some of these had the titling in up to 4 languages, such as this example: German, English, French & Russian. This enabled the company to market them in these countries without having to produce different labels for each country. Those which included the English-language titling, such as this example were marketed & sold in Britain.These mutli-language-labelled records were all (as far as I can tell) instrumental recordings, which meant there were no language issues with selling them internationally. From about 1911, Globophon started recording English-language recordings, usually popular or comic songs. These were given a 6000-series matrix, starting at 6001 and running to over 6300. It is very likely that these were recorded in London. It was cheaper to send over a recording Expert to London, than to get the artists to travel to Hanover! The factor (agent) in England was Frank Rauth, of 9 Christopher Street, Finsbury Square, London, and it was most likely that his premises included recording rooms for Globophon to use. The matrix number on the record usually showed a suffix of KV, which Dr Rainer Lotz suggests would refer to Karl Vogel, who had been a recording expert since 1899 and so was very experienced in the art (or was it a science?) of making recordings. It was probably at this time that the label design changed (see second image) and the ones destined for Britain had the titling all in English. This included any German recordings, which may have previously appeared on the earlier design of label. Globophon records were available in Britain up to the start of WWI in 1914 and cost 1/6, matching the price of other cheap popular records at the time. Even so, they are very scarce. Globophon recordings were also to be found on other German manufactured records sold in Britian. These include Apollo, Eclipse, Festival (which had the same design as Globophon) and Playwell. I show, right, an image of Frank Rauth's premises at they appear today (2024), courtesy of Google Streetview. No. 9 is the part with the awning on the ground floor. Today the building is split up into 3 separate apartments: 9a, 9b & 9c, but in the early 20th century when Rauth was there, he would have occupied the whole building and one floor (possibly the top) would have been given over to the recording room(s). The German recording expert, believed to be Karl Vogel, would have travelled to London, with his precious recording equipment (recording experts were very secretive about their work), and probabaly stayed nearby for some days or even weeks, while they took a large number of recordings. My thanks to Dr Rainer Lotz for the first label image and to Ray Stephenson for the second label photo. |
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