Gramophone Company

The Gramophone Company Limited
	File:His Master's Voice logo.svg The "His Master's Voice" trademark used by the company
Company type	Private
Industry	Phonograph manufacturing, record label
Founded	1 April 1898; 128 years ago in London, United Kingdom
Founder	William Barry Owen, Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams (under commission from Emil Berliner)
Defunct	1973
Fate	Renamed to EMI Records Limited
Successor	EMI Records Limited
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom, international (outside United States)
Key people	William Barry Owen, Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams, Emil Berliner, Fred Gaisberg, Trevor Osmond Williams
Products	Phonographs, gramophone records, radios, televisions, radiograms
Parent	Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI) (from 1931)

The Gramophone Company Limited was a pioneering British manufacturer of phonographs and a record label, established in April 1898 by Emil Berliner. It ranked among the earliest enterprises to issue recorded music.

In 1899, the firm secured the rights to the His Master's Voice artwork and trademark, subsequently introducing the His Master's Voice sub-label in 1909 for its phonograph products and record releases. This new branding replaced the earlier "Recording Angel" trademark. The company maintained connections with the American Victor Talking Machine Company, which also utilized the same iconic image.

The year 1931 saw The Gramophone Company merge with the Columbia Graphophone Company, resulting in the formation of Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI). Operating as one of EMI's music labels, The Gramophone Company continued until 1973, when it was rebranded as EMI Records Limited. The His Master's Voice imprint persisted until 1993, after which it was replaced by EMI Classics.

History

Founded in April 1898 in London, The Gramophone Company was established by William Barry Owen and Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams under commission from Emil Berliner.

Owen served as the representative for Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone record, while Williams provided financial backing. Initial disc manufacturing primarily took place in Hanover, Germany at a facility operated by Berliner's family, before expanding production internationally.

In 1898, Fred Gaisberg moved from the United States to London to set up Europe’s first disc recording studio located on Maiden Lane. Among the earliest recordings produced was Australian soprano Syria Lamont’s rendition of "Coming through the Rye." In December 1900, Owen acquired manufacturing rights for the Lambert Typewriter Company, briefly renaming the business Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. This move was a strategic response to legal challenges posed by Edison Bell.

Lawsuits

The Berliner Gramophone Company encountered significant legal disputes involving ex-employee Frank Seaman, who covertly marketed a substandard product called the Zonophone as an alternative to Berliner's gramophone. Following Berliner’s termination of his contract with The National Gramophone Company, he faced litigation for breach of contract.

In 1900, the U.S. parent company lost a patent infringement case filed by Columbia Records and Zonophone, which prohibited it from manufacturing records within the United States. Columbia commenced domestic disc record production in 1901, whereas The Gramophone Company in the UK and other international entities continued operations outside the U.S. Emile Berliner founded Berliner Gramophone in Montreal, serving as Victor’s Canadian distributor and retaining rights to the "His Master's Voice" trademark in Canada.

His Master's Voice

Although widely known among UK consumers as "His Master's Voice" due to its prominent display on record labels, The Gramophone Company never officially operated under that name. The famous painting "His Master's Voice," created during the 1890s, features the dog Nipper attentively listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph.

In 1899, company founder Owen purchased this artwork from artist Francis Barraud and substituted the Edison machine with a Gramophone model. By 1900, Emile Berliner had acquired U.S. rights to the image, which became the trademark for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901; meanwhile, The Gramophone Company retained rights within the United Kingdom. Victor aggressively promoted the Nipper trademark, first incorporating it into their record labels in 1902.

In February 1909, The Gramophone Company introduced new labels showcasing the "His Master's Voice" trademark—commonly abbreviated as HMV in Britain—to differentiate them from earlier releases that bore the Recording Angel emblem designed by Theodore Birnbaum, an executive at their Hanover pressing facility.

Recording facilities

During the mid-1920s, chairman Trevor Osmond Williams approved the budget to purchase land and construct a dedicated recording studio. The initiative was overseen by F. H. Dart from the technical recording division. In 1929, the property at 3 Abbey Road was secured, and following close to two years of extensive refurbishment, the three-studio complex—subsequently recognized as EMI Recording Studios—officially commenced operations on 12 November 1931.

EMI establishment

In March 1931, Gramophone combined forces with the English Columbia Graphophone Company, resulting in the creation of Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). Despite this merger, the "Gramophone Company, Ltd." designation remained in use for many years, particularly evident on record copyright labels.

Starting in the 1930s, HMV expanded its product range to include radios, televisions, and radiograms, marketed under both HMV and Marconiphone brands and manufactured at its Hayes facility in Middlesex.

The Gramophone Company of India was founded in 1946. In 1973, the Gramophone Company Ltd underwent a name change to EMI Records Ltd. Following EMI's acquisition by Universal Music, the label transitioned to Parlophone Records Ltd., which was later acquired by Warner Music.

Acoustic recording techniques

From the 1890s until approximately mid-1925, recordings were created through acoustic methods without electrical amplification, relying solely on sound waves produced by performers to directly operate recording instruments.

Matrix number	Catalog number	Year recorded	Year reviewed	Composer	Composition	Performer(s)	Remarks
05672; Cc 344-1	D 576	1921		Bach	Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848	Scharrer, Irene	[1] [2]
3-0826 cc1935 III; 3-0827 cc1936 II; 3-0828 cc1937 II	D 683,4	1922-10-05	1923	Bach	Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048, G major	Goossens, Eugène; Royal Albert Hall Orchestra	[3]
2-07920 A15560; 2-07918 A15561; 2-01922 A15562	DB 587; DB 588	1915		Bach	Concerto for two violins, BWV 1043, D minor	Zimbalist, Efrem (violin), Kreisler, Fritz (violin), String Quartet (orchestra)	[4]
Cc 1299-1. Cc 2909-1. Cc 2910-4. Cc 2911-4. Cc 2912-4. Cc 2913-3. Cc 2914-4	D 947-950	1923-06-18		Beethoven	Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1	Catterall Quartet	https://sounds.bl.uk/Classical-music/Beethoven/026M-1CL0072526XX-0100V0
Cc 3119; Cc 3120; Cc 4545; Cc 4546; Cc 4547; Cc4548	D 997-999	1924-05-06		Beethoven	Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1	Catterall Quartet	https://sounds.bl.uk/Classical-music/Beethoven/026M-1CL0029893XX-0100V0
Cc4550, Cc4614 through Cc4617, and Cc4690 through Cc4692	HMV D 953 through D 956	1924-06		Beethoven	Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 ("Rasumovsky")	Virtuoso String Quartet: Marjorie Hayward, violin I; Edwin Virgo, violin II; Raymond Jeremy, viola; Cedric Sharpe, cello	[5]
HO2732af		1917-07		Beethoven	Trio for piano and strings op.1 no.2 (presto)	Hambourg, Mark (piano), Hayward, Marjorie (violin), Warwick-Evans, C (cello)	[6]

References

Obituary: Pioneer of the Gramophone Industry, Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette, 13 December 1946
John R. Bennett: A catalogue of vocal recordings from the English catalogues of the Gramophone Company 1898–1899, the Gramophone Company Limited 1899–1900, the Gramophone & Typewriter Company Limited 1901–1907 and the Gramophone Company Limited 1907–1925. Oakwood Press, 1956. Accessible via archive.org. (Reissued by Greenwood Press, 1978.)
Alan Kelly: His master's voice – La voce del padrone; the Italian catalogue; a complete numerical catalogue of Italian gramophone recordings made from 1898 to 1929 by the Gramophone Company Ltd. Greenwood Press, 1988.
Alan Kelly: His master's voice, the French catalogue; a complete numerical catalogue of French gramophone recordings made from 1898 to 1929 by the Gramophone Company Ltd. Greenwood Press, 1990.
Alan Kelly: His master's voice, the German catalogue; a complete numerical catalogue of German gramophone recordings made from 1898 to 1929 by The Gramophone Company Ltd. Greenwood Press, 1994.
Alan Kelly; Jacques Klöters: His master's voice, the Dutch catalogue; a complete numerical catalogue of Dutch and Belgian gramophone recordings made from 1900 to 1929 by the Gramophone Company Ltd. Greenwood Press, 1997.
The voice, the magazine of the Gramophone Co., Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex, published between 1917 and 1954

External links

The trademark gramophone of The Gramophone Company, dated 1898
The Gramophone Company Discography A searchable collection of recordings produced by The Gramophone Company and its successors during the era of 78 RPM records.