Re: [ARSCLIST] Any early Victor experts who can tell me more about this issue?

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is a half-label, pasted on a regular Victor pressing.  The "dog and 
horn" trademark could not be imported to the continent from the U.S. nor the 
reverse (there are Victor half-labels as well).  The two companies operated 
a cartel dividing the world.  The unaltered trademark kept Victor product 
from being sold in the Gramophone Company's territory, etc. Customs would 
either send them back or, if they got throgh and were placed on sale, often 
resulted in pulling the importer's franchise.  Distributors in one half 
would otherwise cut price to undersell the price-maintained on  in the other 
half.  In big enough piles, the profits were greate enough to cover any 
additional shipping costs.  These distributors had signed agreements with 
the big outfit not to do this.

The half-labels were pasted on or pressed in at the plant and exported 
directly by Victor or The Gramophone Company to their counterpart where the 
records entered the normal distributor-dealer structure.  They were usually 
special orders though there were also selected items listed in "Import" 
catalogs.  In that case, the orders were accumulated and one big one placed 
abroad.  The files at the Johnson Museum in Dover contain considerable 
corespondence concerning this issue.

When , say, a Peruvian dealer sent an inquiry to the Gramophone Company, the 
correspondance was routinely sent by them to Victor to make the contact.

This was not as heavily enforced in the laster years of the cartel.  Used 
record dealers used their own or stock half-labels to obscure Nipper.  But 
it was still protected and patrolled.  Addison Foster was running the 
busiess of importing to the US without the half-label since he had an 
exclusive agreement with then RCA and EMI.  RCA would also import without 
obscuring the trademark post-war.  I'm not sure if The Gramophone Shop, 
Liberty and other importers between the wars had concluded their own 
arrangements.  Certainly, the early Gramophoine Shop records were correctly 
defaced.

Machine parts were ven more heavily policed.

Steve Smolian



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 3:34 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Any early Victor experts who can tell me more about this 
issue?


> http://cgi.ebay.com/rare-10-78-record-2-comic-duets-by-hoffman-jacobs_W0QQitemZ320225711099QQihZ011QQcategoryZ306QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
>
> Export issue,I presume.
>
>
>                                      Roger
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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