Notes on 78 rpm paper sleeves
Pre-war and wartime record sleeves up to 1945
Paper sleeves are the part of a 78 that nobody kept records of. These pages set out what can be worked out about when particular sleeves were printed and used, from directories, record catalogues, the artists and brands they advertise, and dated examples. They begin with the sleeves in Simon Dodkins’ collection of pre-war and wartime 78s in Jersey. Each page gives its conclusion first, then the evidence and sources, and says plainly what is still uncertain.
How the dates are reached, and what “documented”, “observed” and “inferred” mean here, is explained on About & method.
Do you have a sleeve from the period? Photographs of pre-war and wartime sleeves, especially from Europe, are very welcome. Find out how to send one.
Dealers’ sleeves
G. Roberts & Co., Croydon
Printed c. 1929–1939H. Heath, Winstanley Road, S.W.11
Printed c. late 1928 – spring 1932Bensted’s Corner, West Ealing
Late 1933 or later (before 1948)Maxwell & Sons, Ltd.
1923 or later (probably interwar)Ferry & Foster, Ltd.
Probably 1920s–1930s
Company sleeves
Regal Zonophone “The Biggest Sellers” (brown and green)
Green c. 1933–1937; brown 1938 or laterTelefunken “Künstler von Weltruf”
1938–1939 (most likely 1938)Odeon (Norway)
About 1935–1938Imperial “line-graphic” sleeve
About 1937/38–1944Kristall “musicians and dancers” sleeve
Probably about 1935–1941Dominion Record company sleeve
Printed c. 1929–1930Pathé Actuelle “Needle Cut”
c. 1921–1928Sterno “The Supertone Record” (two printings)
c. 1929–1935Victor “For Victory” war-bonds sleeve
c. 1943–1945Broadcast Twelve (two Vocalion sleeves)
c. 1928–1932Victor Radio with Electrola
c. 1930–1934Metropole “A Striking Record”
From 1928Piccadilly “The Centre of Variety”
c. late 1928–1932Edison Bell Winner
c. 1926–1933Zonophone “Supreme Value / Consistent Quality”
Before 1933 (probably 1920s)Rex: lion and floating-disc sleeves
1933–1948 (lion probably 1933–37)Homochord Records
c. 1928–1930Decca “Supreme Records”
c. 1940–1945 (design used later too)Parlophone “The Record of Quality”
c. 1931–1934 (not after 1937)HMV “Three Vital Qualities”
Dec 1927 or later (probably c. 1928–1930)HMV Chaliapine / Model 130
c. 1928–1933Pathé gold cockerels (dark)
1938 or later (design used to c. 1949)Tempo red catalogue and blue factory sleeves
Red c. 1940–41; blue 1938–45Odeon: cross lettering, twin ovals and a French lighthouse
c. 1929–1939 (see page)Woolco “Die gute Schallplatte”
c. 1929–1935
Shorter notes on groups of designs
Pathé, Odéon and Gramophone (France)
Designs seen 1929–1945Decca, HMV and EMI (Britain)
Designs of c. 1930–1945