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CRYSTALATE

THE HISTORY OF THE CRYSTALATE COMPANIES IN THE RECORD INDUSTRY, 1901-1937.

The following series was transcribed and edited for Hillandale by Ruth Edge, Archivist at EMI Music Ltd. , from the talk given at the June Meeting of the Society by Frank Andrews.

Part 1: ORIGINS.

The Crystalate Manufacturing Company Ltd. was founded in 1901, promoted by a London-based British company and an American partnership at Golden Green, Hadlow, near Tonbridge in Kent. The British promoter had begun as the Endolithic Company Ltd (incorporated in 1882)., which had a process of introducing colours and designs into minerals and manufactured substances, and made imitation ivory using the patented formulae of Dr George Hands Smith, M.D.^[1]

The Endolithic company resolved to wind up its affairs in December 1885. By May 1886, Dr. Smith had been joined by a Mr. Percy Warnford-Davis, and this partnership was carrying on a similar business to that of the liquidating Endolithic Company, the liquidator allowing them to trade under the name of the Endolithic Ivory Company. In August 1889 the Endolithic Ivory Company's business was sold to a new private company, the Endolithic Ivory Company Ltd. In the next year, a novelty arrived from Germany: the doll-makers Kämmer & Reinhardt had been licensed to produce Berliner Gramophones and discs.

In 1895 in America, the American Gramophone and Berliner Gramophone Companies were already in business and, by the end of 1896, Edison, Columbia and the Berliner businesses had all established sole sales agencies. The National Gramophone Company was set up by Frank Seaman, the Berliner Company's agent. It is at this point that the founders of the American business at Golden Green enter the story.

The Burt Company of America was a comparatively new company in 1896: the brothers Burt had been employed at the Albany Billiard Ball Works, New York State, which was founded by John Wesley Hyatt, the inventor of celluloid. Here they had closely studied all aspects of producing billiard balls, poker chips and similar artefacts and then left to establish their own business.

In 1896 when Frank Seaman became the agent for Berliner products in the USA it became necessary to find a better material for the discs than the vulcanised rubber currently used for pressing. Thus the Duranoid Company of Newark, New Jersey, was contracted to supply shellac composition pressings. In addition, George Henry Burt, with the Burt Company's materials, approached Berliner in 1897 with an offer to press discs after supplying samples. Berliner, having advanced the equivalent of £20, sent his son-in-law Siegfried Sanders to Burt's factory to see the making of the special hard material used for billiard balls and the like, and to see discs being pressed. On July 7th 1898, Berliner contracted Burt for pressings under Burt's secret formula, which he was not to use for others. Ray Wile in America has turned up correspondence showing that Berliner preferred Burt's product to that of Duranoid.

In October in the USA Columbia moved against Seaman for patent infringement In November 1898, Deutsche Grammophon Gmbh was founded in Hanover. In March 1899 Seaman helped to form a new company which was to make Zonophones, his Berliner agency continuing. In October 1899 supplies between the Berliner Gramophone Company and Seaman were terminated, and the Zonophones therefore needed a new disc.

The Burt formula, then also in use for pressing Berliner discs in Hanover, for which George Henry Burt received a royalty, was supposedly exclusive. However the Burt company of America began pressing some Zonophone records and, later, using Mr. English, the Zonophone recording engineer, began to make its own Climax Records through its new subsidiary The Globe Record Company. The Columbia Phonograph Co. General. acted as sales agents for these.

In June 1900 the Endolithic Ivory Company Ltd. changed its corporate name to that of the Endolithic Manufacturing Co. Ltd. with a registered office in Pomona Buildings 61½ Fore St. E.C. (its workshops were probably elsewhere). Members of the Warnford-Davis family had large interests in Endolithic. The Columbia Phonograph Co. General. had been established in London for one month at this time.

FORMATION

This short résumé of that part of the talking machine industry in which George Burt had played a part shows how well experienced he was in the art of making disc records by 1901.

Len Petts pointed out in February 1983 that the Gramophone Company had thought of setting up a pressing plant in England and Burt might well have come over as a consultant. Be that as it may, Burt was here, leaving his Burt Company back in America in a similar business to that of Endolithic, and when with his partner Jacob Kiel he set up as a billiard ball manufacturer under the name of G. H. Burt and Company at Barnes Street, Golden Green, he must soon have been in contact with the Endolithic Company.

On July 1 0th 1 901 , G. H. Burt and Company applied for the word Crystalate to be registered as a trade mark with respect to billiard balls, disc records, bottle stoppers, developing trays and similar products. Three weeks later the Crystalate Manufacturing Company Limited was incorporated on August 2nd 1901, although the Crystalate trade-mark was not to be registered to the Company until July 1902

The G. H. Burt and Company's business had been sold to this new company for £9,000. Burt received 7,500 £1 shares fully paid up and Kiel, who became the first company secretary, received 500 shares. In exchange for these shares Crystalate acquired a twenty-one year lease (dating from February 8th 1901) for four acres of land by the River Medway on which stood a factory with plant and outbuildings, offices, the use of a wharf and the use of a tramway in common with others. Also acquired were Burt's secret formulae and processes for the making of Crystalate materials. [This was the Mid Ken Jam Factory at Barnes Street which had a tramway running south to the Medway, the site is modern housing although soem smaller building may still be extant - JH2018] The registered office was No. 4 The Factory, Golden Green, Hadlow, Kent, and the London office was with the Endolithic Manufacturing Company Ltd. The first directors were Kiel, Burt and Percy Warnford-Davis of Endolithic, the latter having 501 shares. Crystalate was capitalised at £10,000. One of the objectives of the company was to act as sole sales agent for Endolithic. The secret formulae and processes for making Crystalate substances were to be kept in an iron box with two locks requiring different keys. Warner-Davis had one key and Burt the other, and the box was not to be opened without the sanction of Burt as long as he remained the Managing Director of the Company.

Early in 1902 the Burt Company of America sold its Globe Record Company to Eldridge Johnson who, a few weeks later, sold it to the Columbia interests. By this deal he ensured that his new Victor Talking Machine Company would be free of patent litigation from Columbia in the years to come.

The only information discovered which indicates that the Crystalate company made discs soon after its incorporation is in a statement of 1922 from Charles Davis, the works manager, in which he claimed that Crystalate was the first business actually to press gramophone records in England, and another statement by Daryll Warnford Davis, son of Percy, who in 1929 said the first records made by Crystalate were of 5-inches diameter, recorded on one side only, were brown in colour and sold for 2/6d. He also said that at the time they were made (circa 1901 /2), only twelve people were employed at the factory. I know of no-one who has ever seen such a disc. I once held the opinion that perhaps Daryll Warnford-Davis' memory had played him false and that he was referring to the former Nicole Records, but the brown Nicoles were 7 inches in diameter at first, and sold for only one shilling, and then not until 1903. True, when the Talking Machine News once listed some Nicoles in 1903 it referred to them as 5-inch discs, but the advertisements gave the size as 7 inches. However there was certainly a connection between Crystalate and the Nicole record, although Joe Batten refers in his book to Neophone records in this context. Possibly these had a connection, but I have never seen any evidence to support Batten's contention.

When Crystalate was founded in August 1901, the disc business lay almost entirely with the Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd. The International Zonophone Company had been founded that May; its first records came from the Berlin presses in August to be on sale in September, augmenting the few Zonophone imports already arriving from the USA.

The musical box and talking machine stockists Nicole Freres Ltd., of Ely Place, Hatton Garden, were then mainly owned by Carl Krieger of London and a Herr Brun in Germany. In October 1901 they dropped the Gramophone lines in favour of the new International Zonophone Company's products, which were of both German and American origin. Next, Nicole began operating what they called their 'new record account'. They had entered into a contract with Gianni Bettini in Paris in November 1902 to record and manufacture indestructible disc records, and Bettini ceased all further manufacture of cylinders in order to re-equip his Société des Micro-Phonographes Bettini to record and make galvanos for his own Bettini label, to be pressed at Nicole Freres' works in Ely Place, where the Nicole records were to be 'printed' according to a patent of Carl Krieger's of 1902.

In 1903 Nicole Freres began to establish a separate company, Nicole Records Limited. In this they were assisted by G. H. Burt, Crystalate's Managing Director, who was appointed a Director of Nicole under a special agreement . The Company was incorporated on. July 3rd 1903.

Here then is a connection between brown discs and Crystalate, but, as far as is known, Nicoles were recorded and 'printed' at Ely Place and not at Golden Green: yet surely there can be little doubt that Crystalate or Endolithic supplied the ingredient materials for their manufacture? The first artistic director for Nicole Records was Arthur Henry Brookes, who enticed Stephen C. Porter away from the New Century Phonograph Company to become Nicole Record Ltd's first recording expert (although a Mr. Eckhardt of Nicole Freres had taken some of the earlier recordings).

Before the Nicole Record company was formed with Burt's sale of a secret process to the company, Nicole Freres Ltd. had applied for the record label to become a registered trade-mark.

That Burt was associated with Nicole Freres Ltd. in 1903 had not escaped the notice of the Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd, for a letter dated June 1903 was sent to Joseph Berliner saying that his brother had been cabled in America asking for a copy of the 1898 agreement between Emil and Burt, that this had arrived in London and that legal actions had already been instituted against Nicole Freres Ltd's Managing Director, Carl Krieger, and Burt of Crystalate, for breaching the 1898 agreement and for passing off.

A defence was to be that the composition of the Nicoles was quite unlike that which had been supplied to the Berliner Gramophone and Deutsche Grammophon companies under the 1898 agreement. A Mr. [Henry] Cowen, who had a £1,500 investment in the Nicole business, volunteered information in September 1903 which proved that Nicole were fraudulently copying the composition used for making Gramophone discs. Gramophone and Typewriter took two decisions on this:

1. They would continue the litigation. 2. They would purchase Cowen's partnership in Nicole Freres Ltd, the sales agents for Nicole records.

Many 10-inch discs were pressed in black, shellac-like compositions from Nicole matrices and were so for another ten years or so. Some may well have been pressed as early as 1904, but whether any 7-inch records were pressed in the autumn of 1903 in a likeness to the 7 -inch Gramophone Record remains in doubt, in spite of Cowen's information.

While litigation proceeded against Nicole, John Watson Hawd (known as Tack) returned from India in October 1903, where he organised G & T's Far Eastern recording expedition for Gaisberg, Addis and Dillnutt, a task which, as Len Petts has recounted, had made Hawd very dissatisfied with the treatment he had received from his head office in London. Upon his return he resigned from the company and, by March 1904, had acquired enough stockholding from the Nicole Record Company Ltd. to qualify as one of its directors. (He and Burt were earlier acquainted, of course). With Hawd a director, a Nicole Indian recording expedition was soon organised.

Litigation took such a long time to progress to a court hearing that G & T took the decision to buy up the Nicole Record Company Ltd. for the sum of £25,000, but this scheme fell through when they discovered how many individual and complicated agreements the company had. G and T then decided to drive Nicole out of business by underselling them, and in 1904 they produced the 5 -inch Zonophone record, to sell in those countries where the Nicole was taking a hold. The price was only 9d. , compared with 1/- for the Nicoles.

At this time, Ullman Freres, the London Zonophone agents until December 31 1903, began selling the new Odeon 10¾-inch records in Britain in February 1904.

(They had a large financial interest in Prescott's International Talking Machine Company m. b. H. of Berlin, which he had founded in the autumn of 1903). Shortly after this, the Michaelis brothers, Alfred and Dr. William, directors of the Gramophone Company (Italy) Ltd. , parted from the company. Alfred, with a partner, set up the Societa Italiano di Fonotipia in Milan, with the express purpose of ruining the Gramophone business there as he too was dissatisfied with Head Office in London (and they with him), and Dr. William began his Neophone Disc Phonograph business in Germany, whence he soon moved it to Maiden Lane in London. Crystalate may have supplied the white enamel compound which formed the surface of the Neophone discs, as Batten says, but I cannot confirm this.

Did the 5 -inch Zonophone kill the Nicole trade? Well, the 5-inchers do not turn up as frequently as the Nicoles but, in any event, the Nicole Record Company Ltd ceased doing business in England at the end of March 1906. The manufacturing plant and matrices were carted away by director Jack Hawd to Wellington Mills, Stockport, Cheshire, where Hawd found a partner in a Mr. Spicer, forming Hawd and Spicer Ltd. Burt of Crystalate was Works Manager. From there, fresh pressings of 10-inch Nicoles could be had, or later in new black materials, as Britannic, The Leader, Conqueror, Sovereign Record, Universal Records, and others.

Part 2: Imperial.

The Fonotipia business in Milan was soon in difficulties and was taken over by the D'Erlanger Merchant Bank of London and some Italian bankers who formed a new British company, Fonotipia Limited. This company also acquired the Ullman Freres shares in the Odeon business, thus giving Fonotipia a large measure of control in that enterprise, too. This was April 1906.

FIRST KNOWN PRESSING CONTRACT

The Crystalate company was contracted by Fonotipia Ltd. to manufacture Odeon and Fonotipia records at Golden Green, thus reducing the expense involved in sending masters to Berlin and paying carriage on the finished discs sent back to Britain. Ullman Freres had already relinquished its British agency in Fonotipia and Odeon to a new company, Sterling and Hunting Ltd, run by Louis Sterling and Russell Hunting. This company soon began advertising the Crystalate works at their own Odeon works, Crystalate pressing the bulk of the Odeons and Fonotipias sold by Sterling and Hunting. The pressings generally had embossed in the central area "Made for the Fonotipia Companies".

By June 1907 Burt had so reduced his stockholding in the Crystalate Manufacturing Company Ltd. that he no longer qualified as a director and he was no longer General Manager. He had moved to St Helens, Lancashire, much nearer to his new position as Works Manager at Wellington Mills, Stockport. From here on Burt leaves the story of Crystalate, the private company being wholly in the hands of the Warnford Davis family, the Endolithic Manufacturing Company Ltd and some others.

Late in 1906, Imperial Records (made by the Leeds and Catlin Company at Middleton, Connecticut) were imported into Britain by Gilbert, Kimpton and Company of London, the agents for the breakfast cereal 'Force' and importers of poultry from East European countries. The Imperial Record trade mark was granted to Gilbert, Kimpton and Co.at the end of the label's first run in 1909.

When Barnett Samuel and Sons Ltd. became the new British agents for Odeon and Fonotipia records in 1908, the new Jumbo Record was introduced at 3/-d. Jumbos were made in Germany at first but then this 10-inch record also began to be made at Golden Green with the 10¾ inch discs. A new formula was in use then called Empedite, registered to Barnett Samuel & Sons as a trade-mark.

The next most important company in this history after Crystalate and Endolithic was founded in March 1910: The Sound Recording Company Ltd., of Swallow Street, Piccadilly. From its address, a year earlier, Harry Hinks Martin, connected with the talking machine business since the mid 1890's, applied for the words "Martin Grammavox" as a Registered Trade Mark. Associated was the design of a martin or swallow. This mark was not granted, but the word Grammavox became the first label of the Sound Recording Company Ltd's records of 1910. At first, these were made especially to accompany cinema motion pictures, particularly those of the Animatophone film company. Although it is a matter of doubt whether Crystalate pressed the first Grammavoxes (as they had the exclusive contract with Fonotipia), they were pressed by them later. The recording expert was a Mr. Holland, who had been associated with the Disc Record Company Ltd. at Stockport, so the first Grammavoxes could have been made in Cheshire. On the other hand 10¼-inch discs were being pressed at the Edison Bell works in Peckham, and these were the same size as the Grammavox records.

THE SECOND CRYSTALATE COMPANY

Three months after the Sound Recording Company was formed, the Crystalate Manufacturing Co. Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation and its business was sold to a new company of the same name, with a capital of £25,000 compared with the liquidating company's then £15,000 capitalisation. ^[2]

This new Crystalate company raised a further £5,000 by creating a mortgage debenture two months later. The Endolithic Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and its officers took most of the new company's shares. The registered office was at Golden Green. The capital was to be doubled before the outbreak of war in 1914.

In the meantime, on May 18th 1911, the Endolithic Company Ltd. raised £2,500 by mortgaging its Poplar Farm at Hadlow, Kent. During 1911 Fonotipia Ltd was acquired by Carl Lindstrom A.G. of Berlin, and in 1913 Fonotipia Ltd. and Lindstrom's British branch of Beka Records began jointly the construction of a record making factory in Gashouse Lane, Hertford. Variously known as the Fonotipia Works or Mead Works, this went into production in late 1913. Obviously the Fonotipia contract with Crystalate would not be renewed, and as early as February 1913 Crystalate began advertising for pressing contracts. The Sound Recording Company Ltd. availed itself of their services, although it may already have done so before the advertisements appeared. The Sound Recording Company had already registered a number of different record labels as trade marks which were available for the exclusive use of potential customers who wanted pressings from the company's matrix stock of 10¼ inch discs. Among such labels were The Champion Record, used by Gamages; Standard Record for an unknown client and Olympic Record, used by Levy's of Whitechapel. Other registered labels used at later dates for various sizes were Beacon, Butterfly, Criterion, Mimosa, Popular and Stavophone. Other clients owning their own labels could, and did, make use of the Sound Recording Company's matrices. These included, or were to include, Ariel Grand for Graves of Sheffield; The Chappell for the music publishers; Whiteley's for the Queensway store and some Guardsman for the Invicta Record Co. Ltd. The Imperial had been acquired from Gilbert, Kimpton and Company in 1911, after Victor and Columbia in America had forced the makers out of business by patent litigations January 1907

The Wholesale Record Branch offered the New Imperial Double Sided Disc Record, the Standard Stavophone and the Popular Records at cheap prices in August 1913 - all Sound Recording Company labels - to be matched by Phoenix at 1/1d. from Columbia, and the Cinch from British Zonophone at the same price, as well as cheap brands from others.

Later, Invicta was to send its own matrices to Crystalate for the pressing of its Guardsman and Citizen records and also for its clients who had their own labels, such as A.W.Gamage and Curry's Ltd. Until the outbreak of the 1914-1918 war the only disc to bear the Sound Recording Company's name was the Grammavox, which also bore the registered trade mark of a herald and the letters S.R.C.

During the war, the Popular Record was reduced to 10 inches and later began to bear the Sound Recording Company name and its trade mark. The Grammavox label was discontinued, but not before a 12-inch Grammavox de-luxe record was sold. (There had also been a 12-inch Chappell Record). William Ditcham, one-time organist at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, pianist recording artist and ex-recording expert for Electric, Odeon and Jumbo records, formed his Bulldog Recording Companies (three) during the war. The pressing was undertaken by Crystalate, who also pressed Coronet and Neptune Records for Curwen's the music publishers and Waverley for A.H.Wilkinson in Scotland, using Bulldog matrices. Henry Geehl was Bulldog Records' Musical Director and, as he was attached to the Band of the Lifeguards, it is no surprise that this band was recorded by Bulldog. The Crystalate trade-mark was re-registered in 1915 and although the company had been into records for fourteen years, it still had no label of its own. It was at this period that the Sound Recording Company began referring to the Crystalate factories as their own and used the same photographs that Sterling & Hunting Ltd.had in 1906 when they claimed the Crystalate plant as theirs. After the war, another firm of music publishers, Bosworth & Co. Ltd., had Bosworth records pressed and Morgan & Scott Ltd., religious music publishers, had Melody records pressed from matrices held in the Crystalate works, with Vesper and Gramstop Records following soon after. Former Popular and Grammavox Records, ex-stock, began to circulate with overstuck labels.

In October 1921, the Sound Recording Company advertised that it had three factories at work in the Tonbridge area. Of the two mentioned, one was at Canon Lane off the Hadlow Road and the other was the Town Mills. The factories were mortgaged in July 1922.

A second revival of Imperial Records to be issued in October 1920 had not materialised, due, so it was claimed, to the steady business being done in Ye Popular Records when some 5⅜ inch Little Popular records were also produced. The advertisement promising the Imperial's early release in 1920 employed the same printer's block as had been used by the advertisers of the original Imperials issued in 1906 but with the record titles obliterated. The proposed new Imperials did not appear until September 1922, but a reference hinted that they had been on sale earlier in parts of the Empire.

When the Imperials did appear it was evident that the Crystalate company had taken over the Sound Recording Company and kept it as a going concern. William Ditcham with his two Bulldog Record Companies at Farringdon Road was now recording expert for Crystalate. A number of his old matrices were in use to make Imperials. There Crystalate set up its London offices. The first "Imperial Records" (later "Imperial") had royal blue labels, printed in gold, and were very similar in design to the original label of 1906, which had been variecoloured. With this third introduction of the Imperial label, the Swallow Street premises were vacated and the proprietors of the label (the Sound Recording Company) moved in with the Endolithic Manufacturing Co. Ltd. then at 60 Aldersgate St. Their Popular Record labels had already ceased. Stock rooms for London dealers in Imperials were established at 63 Faringdon Road, Ditcham's premises. The Crystalate factories at this time were making Imperials and 5⅜ inch Beacons and Mimosas, with contract work then or later in Ariel Grands, Curry's, Olympic, Standard, Westport, Jaycee, Henecy and Savana. The 5⅜ inch size was later augmented by Kiddyphone, Marspen, Oliver and Pigmy-Gramophone, running into electrical recording and increased sizes. Although the Imperial label belonged to the Sound Recording Company Ltd., it was the Crystalate firm which carried on all the advertising for Imperials from September 1922 as "The oldest makers of disc records in England".

The Imperial Record catalogue series, as far as new recordings were concerned, would apear to have begun at either No. 1,000 or 1,001, and the matrices simply continued the numbering used on the last of "Ye Popular" records. The lowest catalogue number used on Imperials was 817, but the 180 or so discs encompassed between 817 and 1,000 were all re-pressings of matrices formerly used for Popular, Chappell, Olympic and Bulldog records.

In July 1923 the first 12-inch Imperials were sold as Imperial De Luxe Records, made by Jewish artists, obtainable in London only through Israel Rachovich (who also had his own label). Also in July, Imperial Records began to be sold from imported matrices of the Regal Record Company, New York, which were also used in America for the Banner label, both these being part of the Plaza Music Company's business there.

The Endolithic/Crystalate businesses at this period were increasingly engaged in the manufacture of components for radio receiving and broadcasting apparatus.

Imperial Records at 2/- prospered. A Manchester depot was opened in 1923, others in Dublin and Sheffield by January 1925. In July 1925, all the Sound Recording Company's registered trade-marks were registered to the Crystalate Company. Imperials suitable for the French market were issued in June and August.

Increased profit margins were afforded Imperial dealers in February 1926 and further depots at Leeds and Liverpool opened by August for the ever expanding sales of acoustic Imperials - even though some rivals had taken on electrical recording. The competition to Imperial at this time comprised twenty-eight other 10-inch labels at least, from Aco to Zonophone, and the small Mimosa records had rivals from Edison Bell, British Homophone and Vocalion.

A newly designed Imperial label was used during 1926, printed in lilac and mauve, but two shades of green were used for the December 1926 series of Irish Imperials issued with 'A'-prefixed numbers. Two thousand additional dealers had been appointed during the year and a Glasgow depot opened.

In December 1926 Crystalate moved its studios, offices and stock rooms from 63 Farringdon Road along the road to 69, which was named "Imperial House". Ditcham's studios were on the top floor along with the artists' rooms. Some electrical recording had been undertaken and issued and was soon to be generally adopted, but the first electricals advertised in June 1927 were made from imported American matrices.

An advertising campaign had begun in January, depicting The Perfect Pair, a demi-semi-quaver and a florin, both replete with matchstick arms and legs, representing Tone and Price. The April 1927 Imperial catalogue listed records for the Dutch market. Contract records were still pressed for Curry's and as Olympic for Levy's, although by August 1927 Levy had his own Levaphone and Oriole labels, which were pressed by others. In July 1927 Crystalate applied for the word Eclipse as a registered trade mark for records. In September the price of Imperials was reduced to 1/6d., and the Perfect Pair slogan in the advertisements had to be abandoned. The next month's supplement was the first to claim that all Imperials were electrically recorded (as now were Mimosas and Olivers and other 6-inch discs previously mentioned.

THE THIRD CRYSTALATE COMPANY AND WOOLWORTHS

On January 30th 1928 a new public company was incorporated which took over all the business of the Crystalate Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and its properties. This was the Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Co. Ltd., with a capital of £150,000 and a registered office at Golden Green. The former private company resolved to wind up its affairs in February 2nd and held its last meeting in August, completing an existence of eighteen years.

The new company changed the name of its Sound Recording Company Ltd. to that of Associated Ivorine and Metal Products Ltd. in March. A little later, this company absorbed three other associated companies in engineering, plastics and printing. Two and a half years later, this combined company changed its name to that of Reliance (Name Plates) Ltd. and up to a few months ago, (1982) had its registered office, along with an Endolithic company, in a building opposite the Bloomsbury Institute where this Society's meetings are held.

Back in March 1928, Pertinax of "Sound Wave" made passing reference to the 6-inch discs made by Crystalate which were a cause for concern that year. In June director Warnford-Davis said they had been supplying F.W.Woolworth & Co.Ltd. with a 4d. record for the last four years which retailed at 6d. but Woolworth's were then threatening to cancel orders if there was an increase in price. The question of increase had arisen because a Copyright Royalties Commission had recommended that the royalty payable under the Copyright Act should increase from 5 to 6½% of the selling price of recordings of musical works published since the Act came into force in July 1912. This would increase the minimum stamp value to ¾d. per side, adding ½d. to the wholesale cost of a 6d. record. A bill to amend the Act was due to go before the House of Lords with authors, composers and publishers demanding a 10% royalty. Mr. Boosey declared the recommended 6½% royalty a farce. Warnford-Davis said the increase would make it almost impossible for his company to produce sixpenny records, of which they were the manufacturers of the largest numbers. The sixpenny record continued to be sold. The Endolithic Manufacturing Co. Ltd. decided to wind up on April 17th 1928 and form a new company - The Endolithic Company Limited. To be concluded)

Rex and retirement

Crystalate launched three new series of records in 1928. These were a Scottish "SC" prefixed Imperial, an "H" prefixed Jewish Imperial and the 7-inch "The Victory Record" for Woolworth's, who sold "nothing over sixpence". The two extant Victory registered trade marks were bought from Columbia for £75; Columbia had owned them since 1916 and had bought them from the company which first sold Victory records in 1912. (A third Victory trade mark was submitted for registration in October 1928, the design used on the discs later.) Record collectors will be familiar with the Victory label "The long playing record", which had some differences in detail of design and colour during its few years of production. The series began at No. 1 - for a change. There was also a "nursery series" using letters of the alphabet instead of catalogue numbers.

Reports in November 1928 referring to the Victory contract with Woolworth's also mentioned that Marks & Spencer were taking on Imperials. With this strong backing for their products, a Crystalate board meeting discussed an increase in the company's capital to complete arrangements to join with the Regal Record Company of New York (The Plaza Music Company's subsidiary). Crystalate's shareholders sanctioned an increase of £50,000 for the purchase of all Regal's shares. Besides the 10- inch Regal and Banner matrices, the company also acquired those for the 7-inch Litle Tots and Playtime records. In England, the Mimosas and Olivers had been increased to 7 inches. The April 1929 Annual General Meeting was told of profits of £101,592. The business was then entering its most successful period. A Berlin factory was equipped for record manufacture and was expected to be in production in a couple of weeks. The 1929 catalogue listed a Swedish repertoire in a 1,000 series, confusingly duplicating some numbers still listed for early acoustic Imperials. A short Taal language South African repertoire was also listed with "T" prefixes.

A May report said one of the factories was being enlarged and that the former West Hampstead Town Hall had been acquired to become a modern recording studio with administration offices. All Crystalate's buildings and plant were then valued at £92,201. The Deutsche Crystalate G.m.b.H. had been formed in Germany and La Compagnie Crystalate Francaise in France. In June Imperial House in Faringdon Street was vacated and the company took temporary premises at Endolithics at 60 Aldersgate Street before moving to 60/62 City Road, then being prepared as Crystalate House.

An August report said that Crystalate's Regal Record Company had merged with the Scranton Button Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania and with the Cameo Record Corporation of New York, a branch of the Pathe Phonograph and Radio Corporation. These firms coalesced into a new company: the American Record Corporation, with a 9 million dollar capital. Crystalate had a third interest with three directors on the board. Scranton had another three directors and Cameo had two. Under its President the companies would operate separately, the Scranton company undertaking the pressing while Regal and Cameo would arange recordings and organise sales. There were factories in Scranton, Auburn in New York State, at

Framingham in Massachusetts and at Glendale in California. More Imperial depots were opened in Belfast, Newcastle and Nottingham, and Crystalate House was occupied in September. By this time the Imperial label had undergone a change in colour to red and claret. "Electrical Recording" had been added to the lilac and mauve labels.

The previous three years had seen many changes in the rivals to the Imperial and smaller records. At least ten labels, from Aco to Vocalion, had disappeared, but another twelve, probably one or two more, from Edison Bell's "The Crown" to "Unison", had replaced those, although the three Pathe labels and the Edison record would be gone by the end of the year. More depots opened in November in Birmingham. Bristol and Hull. Arthur Charles Haddy, aged 23 and married to Harry Fay's daughter, visited the Hampstead studios in 1929 and felt he could design better recording equipment than that in use. He eventually left Western Electric to join Crystalate as chief of the recording laboratory. William Ditcham, chief recorder, resigned in the summer of 1930 after eight years with the Company. His place was taken by a Mr B.S.Tuke. In 1930, profits of the British Company had increased by 15% and the German company was reported as having done well. The Imperial label underwent another colour change to dark blue and red during this period.

Imperials were reduced to l/3d. in February 1931. Woolworth's took the last deliveries of Victory records and began taking the new 8-inch Eclipse records in March. This was the first new record to benefit from Haddy's recording technique and had excellent sound quality for 6d. Crown Record matrices from the U.S.A. were in use for Imperials during 1931 when more depots opened in Great Yarmouth, Weston-super-Mare and York. Late in the year the American Record Corporation absorbed the Brunswick and Brunsick-controlled Vocalion records in America, and the matrices later became available to Crystalate as a consequence of its holding in A.R.C. The Crown matrices stopped coming after December 1931. In November 1931, after thirty years in the business, the company began to sell records labelled Crystalate. These were 12-inch discs priced at only two shillings. They had a Z.100 catalogue series. Matrices from the European associate companies formed part of the repertoire. In March 1932 came intimations that Crystalate were negotiating for the Vocalion Gramophone Co. Ltd. of Hayes, with recording studios at Holland Park. Vocalion were then making only the 9- inch Broadcasts and Unisons, and the 10-inch Broadcast Super Twelves by a new electrical process. A capital increase of £125,000 was approved to purchase the Vocalion business. After only four months, the 12-inch Crystalate label was discontinued; the Z.100 series continued under a newly designed red, blue and gold Imperial label when was also given to the 10- inch discs in March 1932. The April Annual General Meeting heard of increased profits for 1931.

'GRAMOPHONE RECORD MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD. Popularity " Imperial" Records. INCREASED PROFITS. The Annual General Meeting the Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company, Limited, was held yesterday at Winchester House, Old Broad Street, London. E.C. Mr. P. Warnford-Davie, the Chairman of the Company, who presided, said that the profit on trading for the year amounted £86,713, against £74.925 last year and the net profit was £76.270. Adding the balance brought forward, there was a total £89.478, from which had deducted income-tax Schedule D, April. 1931, and also the dividend on the Preference shares 31st January last, and the interim dividend of 8 1/3 per cent, the Ordinary shares. That left for disposal now £64.195. from which the Board recommended that £35,465 should carried general reserve-to which also to be transferred £104.534 standing the credit of share premium account-that final dividend of 12 ½ per cent., less tax. paid the Ordinary shares, and that the balance £14,199 lie carried forward. After those allocations to general reserve the fund would stand at £150.000 equal to the Ordinary share capital of Company. The Directors considered it prudent adopt that course, particularly in view of the unsettled conditions in general. Although the profits earned would have permitted of the payment somewhat higher dividend, the position of the Company would materially strengthened the benefit the shareholders by adopting a cautious policy now. Trading during the year under review had not been easy, but, in spite of very unsettled conditions, considerable progress had been made, and was pleased to say that that progress still continued, reflected in increased sales so far in the current year. The Company had recently reduced retail price their records, believing it was essential to produce goods which general public could afford to buy; they had specialised for over years in making low priced records, increasing the quality of the Company's products, and offering their customers the greatest possible value. The result had to popularise still further their "Imperial" record, which had now established itself as the standard low priced record. Report and Accounts were unanimously adopted.' [Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Thursday 23 April 1931]

Business in Europe and the affairs of the French and German companies had been good. but the American Record Corporation had done poorly. After selling out to Crystalate, the Vocalion Co. Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation in April 1932, but Crystalate formed another Vocalion company of the same name with a £64,000 capital, to continue the business from its City Road address. This Vocalion company reduced the price of Broadcast and Unison records to 1/-. from l/3d. and also reduced the wholesale price of the Broadcast Super Twelves.

The Carl Rosa Opera Company and Jack Payne and his Band had become the latest exclusive artists to Imperial. Jack Payne was given his own label. His first records had been due out in March (a 3/-s-inch promotion disc had already been circulated), but they were delayed until April owing to a fire which damaged some matrices.

It became Crystalate's policy to issue pressings from the A.R.C. on Broadcast 10-inch records. In October 1932 British Homophone, Crystalate, Decca and E.M.I, began operations to ban the public performances of records unless licensed. These culminated eighteen months later with licences issued for a fee paid to the new Phonographic Performances Ltd., but during the interim Crystalate had allowed public performances where they approved requests for them.

In mid-December the two Broadcast labels were augmented by a Broadcast International label, pressed from Crystalate's overseas matrices and sold through Vocalion at l/6d. In February 1933 came the Broadcast Four-Tune, also at l/6d. This had a finer groove pitch and carried two full recordings on each side. Uniquely this latter disc was issued one every Thursday. At this time labels began to carry the legends prohibiting public performances.

The 1933 Annual General Meeting heard of reduced profits. The American and French companies had had a satisfactory year but the German company had not done well. It was decided to make all Broadcast records at Tonbridge, the turnover being insufficient to support the Hayes factory. Arrangements had been completed for the transfer and both sales departments had been merged. From June onwards there were to be fewer issues of Broadcast each month.

On July 10th land registration charges were made on all Crystalate's properties to secure monies due, or to become due, to the Westminster Bank Ltd. Monthly supplements, combining all labels except for Eclipse, started in August 1933. The competition had changed during the past four years, and new rivals had come and gone. Thirteen new labels, from Celebrity to Worldecho, were among those. Of the longer established labels, seven had left the scene, from Edison Bell Electron to Zonophone. Nonetheless, when the Rex 10-inch record was introduced by Crystalate at the highly competitive price of 1/-d. in September 1933, there were still some twenty-one different labels (from Beltona to Trusound) to challenge the new entry. Rex "The King of Records" - "Hear What you Like, When you Like". The Rex trade mark had been applied for by the first Vocalion Gramophone Co. Ltd., and passed to Crystalate's Vocalion company with the takeover of April 1932. British Homophone responded to the Rex by bringing out a new 1/- Homochord in October 1933. Crystalate now began an advertising campaign for the Rex and its other labels by using six of the national newspapers every Friday and Saturday but the Imperials and Broadcast continued for five months more, ending in February 1934. The 10-inch Broadcast Imperial label (with a 4,000 series) replaced them at l/6d., but only for eleven months. During 1934 a new contract customer was the Elim Publishing Company Ltd., a mouth-piece for the Elim Four-Square Gospel Alliance. Their 10-inch Elim record had a red and gold label and was similar in appearance to the Broadcast Super Twelve. The April 1935 Annual General Meeting heard there was to be no dividend, as money was being spent on a new synthetic resin department. Only Rex and Eclipse records were in production. The last issues of Eclipse were taken by Woolworth's in July. 9 inch Crown records at 6d., new from Crystalate; became exclusive to Woolworth's from September. Rex and Crown continued for the next eight months. Crystalate then used another old trade-mark by bringing out the Vocalion "Swing Series" label, through their own Vocalion company. (This was later put into voluntary liquidation on June 6th 1938). Two of Crystalate's directors went to America and while there signed an agreement giving their company pressing rights in the whole of the Brunswick and Vocalion matrix stock, then a part of the American Record Corporation. Pressing could begin from September 1st 1936.

Crystalate were now to enjoy only another few months in the record trade, but could still introduce two more labels. Both were put on sale in November 1936. These were the Vocalion Continental Series, starting at C0001, and the Vocalion Celebrity Series, numbered in the 500 range. In March 1937 the records side of Crystalate was sold to Decca for £150,000 in cash and the allotment of 400,000 of Decca Record shares at 2/6d. R. Warnford-Davis became a Decca Record Director. The continental and American interests and the factories in Kent were not included in this purchase. Decca immediately ended the Woolworth contract for Crown records and the manufacture of Rex and Vocalion was transferred to Decca's New Malden works. The Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow depots were retained to act as wholesalers for records made by Decca. In May 1937, Crystalate handed these over to the Arc Trading Company Ltd., a new organisation which, by agreement, was to act as factors for Decca and Rex records, among other products. On the 31st January 1938 the Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Co. Ltd. changed its name to Crystalate Ltd., still capitalised at £375,000 and based at Golden Green, Tonbridge.

POSTSCRIPT

Crystalate Ltd. held its 400,000 Decca Record shares until October 1938 when, during the period to August 1939, it used them as part payment for the 95,100 shares they acquired from the Donnington Finance Company Ltd. in the British Homophone Co. Ltd. Other assets disposed of for those shares uere the freehold of a factory at Golden Green, 16,442 shares in Consolidated Film Industries Incorporated, 1,000 £1 shares in the Composition Billiard Ball Supply Co. Ltd. and holdings in General Industrial Supplies Ltd. Sir Herbert Eduard Morgan and Jack Lesser, directors of Ebenestos, joined Crystalate's board, Crystalate controlling both British Homophone and Homophone's subsidiary, Ebenestos Industries Ltd.

In May 1937 British Homophone had also withdrawn from the manufacture of entertainment records. They sold their business in that line to E.M.I, and Decca for the sum of £22,500, agreeing not to make records for the next twenty years whether for itself, its subsidiary Ebenestos Ltd. or any other associates or subsidiaries, excepting records made for the purposes of advertising by being broadcast, or in any other manner, such records to contain material rendering them unfit for ordinary entertainment purposes which were not to be sold to the general public. British Homophone also rendered up their registered trade marks in Homophone, Homochord, Sterno, Plaza and others; rendered up all masters, mother and stamper matrices and all rights in them, and all copyrights excepting 300 masters from which they agreed to supply free copies to Decca and E.M.I. if requested. They also rendered up all the information cards, all record presses except those needed for pressing advertising records, all stocks of finished records (except Kid-Kords) and all registered designs.

I wish to acknowledge the following as providers of information not generally available to ordinary research and to whom I give my heartfelt thanks:

Arthur Badrock Researcher Bill Bryant Researcher, U.S.A. Ruth Edge Archivist at EMI Music Ltd. Len Pets Former Archivist at EMI Music Ltd. Ray Wile Researcher, U.S.A. Frank Andrews

References

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