These pages are just notes about the labels which may be found on 78s. Click on the label to see a larger image. Many labels have more pictures, information and sometimes listings which may be found by clicking on the link.  I have included labels from all periods, not just the 1920s and 1930s, just because I find them all interesting!  
         All label scans are from my own collection unless otherwise noted. Information about the labels is from various sources, including my own researching, but Brian Rust's "The American Record Label Book" was very useful as was Don Taylor's "The English 78 Picture Book" and various articles by Frank Andrews and Arthur Badrock in "Hillandale News" and "The Talking Machine Review".           
        In order to make the pages more managable (and quicker to load), I have split this section into alphabetical parts. Click on the appropriate letter below to see the section you want.      

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

Label	Label Photo	Other
Cameo (GB) The British version of Cameo dates from 1916 and were sold by Gilbert's of Sheffield for 1/- (5p).Masters from Regal and Edison Bell Winner were used, and they were probably all paste-over labels.            Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. Also a label scan.
Cameo (USA) Launched in February 1922, Cameo records were produced by the Cameo Record Corporation of 100, est 38th Street, New York. They cost 50 cents each and were sold principally at Macy's. Later on the company became part of the Plaza group, before disappearing in the early 1930s.
Canterbury (GB) I know absolutely nothing about the Canterbury record. It is a "paste-over" label only as far as I am aware, but I am basing this on the only example I've seen which is pictured here. The Canterbury label is only a partial one, being pasted over the upper portion of a "Valkyrie" record. As such, there is no catalogue for Canterbury.
Capitol (Australia) This was a paste-over label, in this case the label being hidden was English Parlophone. The label appeared in 1927, the date when the Australian Houses of Parliament (pictured on the label) opened. My thanks to Derek Kell for the label scan.
Celebrity (GB) Celebrity Records were available during 1929 and 1930, a short lived venture by Celebrity Gramophones Ltd of 82, St Thomas Street, London, who made gramophones from 1927 until about 1932. Celebrity records used a 4300 catalogue series and used U. K. masters from Worldecho and Dominion and U.S. masters from Grey Gull and QRS. They are extremely difficult to find. Most dance records seemed to be issued as by "Celebrity Dance Orchestra". Click here to see a partial listing of the label
Cellutone (GB) Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. Also a label scan
Cetra (Italy) Sorry, I know nothing about this label, but as I had one in my collection, I thought I'd include it on the site.
Challenge (USA) Challenge records were sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. The label appeared in late 1925 and included masters from Gennett, Paramount and the Plaza Group (e.g. Banner). The records were not pressed on very good quality material; they generally have noisy surfaces when compared to the parent labels mentioned above. The label disappeared after about 3 years.
Champion (USA) A Gennett subsidiary, Champion records first appeared in Spetember 1925 and lasted until December 1934, outliving its parent label by four years! Decca bought the rights to the catalogue around this time, and reactivated the label in mid-1935 for about a year.
Champion-Gamage (GB) This was an oversized 10" disc pressed from Grammavox masters for sale in A W Gamage's department stores from 1911. The catalogue series ran from G-1 to about G-150. Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. Also a label scan.
Chappell (GB) Chappell and Co were a music publishers in London. However, just before WWI, they ventured into the record business. The label bearing the company's name used masters from the Sound Recording Company and was very short-lived. Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records.
Cinch (GB) Cinch records were launched in 1913 as The Gramophone Company's answer to all the cheap labels that had appeared in the previous few years. By selling at 1/1 (about 6p), they managed to undercut almost all the cheaper labels, yet still provide a product of a very high quality. Many of the masters had previously been issued on Zonophone, and many were issued under pseudonyms. Cinch records were discontinued in 1916. More Details and pictures
Cinecord (GB) Cinecord was a product of British Homophone Ltd and many of the masters used were also available on Sterno.  They were only available during 1935. With the exceptions of the first issues, the bands are anonymous on Cinecords. The catalogue started at O2 and only lasted a few issues probably up to about O21. (The first one was labelled OD1 (i.e. Odeon).)  More details and a label listing
Citizen (GB) Citizen records are rare and rather mysterious. They first appeared in 1916 and were a Crystalate product using a 3000 catalogue series (no example seen). By 1920 they were being produced by Vocalion and the label changed to a light & dark mauve design (see first example) before changing to the red and gold label seen here. The Vocalion-produced Citizen records used a 3-digit series starting (probably) at 501 or 601 and running into the 800s or 900s before ceasing in the mid 1920s. As you can tell, little is known about the label, the size of the catalogue, or for whom they were produced. The Vocalion period used the usual masters, apart from UK recorded Vocalion matrices, there are Gennett and Vocalion masters from the U.S. Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records.
Clarion (GB) The English Clarion label  is primarily remembered nowadays as a producer of cylindrical records. However they made two types of disc record, an early vertical-cut groove one and the one shown here, Both are very rare. The records date from the World War I period and have catalogue numbers in a 3-digit numeric series. It is not known to which of the two types of record the sleeve belongs. Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records.
Clarion (USA) There were two distinct Clarion labels in America. The first is pretty rare and short-lived; it dates from the early 1920s and seems to be linked with Cardinal.   The second, more familiar is a Columbia product. Initially many Clarion records were re-issues of earlier Columbias, but soon became an affiliate of the Harmony-Velvet Tone-Diva labels, but many sides issued on Clarion can be found nowhere else. The fare was unashamedly popular; Ben Selvin, Annette Hanshaw, Kate Smith, The Boswell Sisters etc. The quality of the recordings and pressings were as good as Columbias of the period (i.e. very fine). Numbering started at 5001-C and ran until about 5477-C.
Clover (USA) Produced by the Nutmeg Corporation, Clover drew on Emerson and Grey Gull for its masters and was available during the mid-1920s. The catalogue numbers are in a 1000 series and the label is rare.
Coliseum (GB) Coliseum records first appeared in 1912, offering popular music at a budget price. Numbering started at 100 and reached 2059 in early 1927 when manufacturing was discontinued. According to contemporary advertisements, the sole manufacturers were Cooper Brothers Ltd, of 45 & 63 City Road & 17, Clerkenwell Road, London EC 1, with branches in Manchester & Cardiff. Prices shown are 2/6 (12.5p) for the standard 10" disc. English matrices were from Vocalion and US matrices from Gennett (initially and finally) with Vocalion "in between", plus a few from Emerson.
Colonial (GB export) A German made British record for export, these were pressed by Homophon in Germany from their own masters for Lockwoods of City Road, London for sale in Australia from 1910. Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. A;so a label scan.
Columbia (GB) The Columbia Graphophone Co Ltd was established in England in 1900 by the New York-based company of the same name. The English company, bought by Louis Sterling (formerly of the Rena Record Co) in 1922, also subsequently (a few years later) bought the American parent company.  Financial problems generally forced the company in 1931 to merge with it's main rival, The Gramophone Company (makers of HMV records). The new company, EMI, kept the Columbia name going until the 1970s, still using the DB-series started in 1930.
Columbia (USA) Columbia's roots are in the very earliest experiments for record, with Tainter & Bell's wax-coated cylindrical records in the 1880s. The company prospered until 1923 when it was bought by the English branch of Columbia, and subsequently sold on to be part of the ARC group in the early 1930s. The label was left to wither for some years before being reactivated in 1938 as part of CBS.
Connorized (USA) The Connorized Music Roll Company issued records for a short time from October 1921 to late summer 1922. The catalogue series started at 3001, running for about 100 issues, using solely Gennett masters, usually correctly labelled, but often cross-coupling the original issues.
Conqueror (GB) This was a pre-WWI record which used Nicole masters but, unlike Nicole, were pressed in standard shellac.
Conqueror (USA) Originally one of the Plaza group of labels, it later became one of the ARC labels, out-living all it's stable-mates and becoming a subsidiary label of Columbia-CBS along with the revived Okeh label. Catalogue numbers started at 7000 in early 1926, reaching nearly 10000 when the label was discontinued in the spring of 1942.
Conquest (GB) A rare 6" record recorded and manufactured by the Gramophone Company. The catalogue numbers started at 2001-D and seem to have ended there, too!
Coronet (GB) These were available for ashort period in 1916 and were made by Crystalate using Invicta masters. They were sold by Curwen's, the music publisher.
Cristal (France) One of the European affiliates of the Crystalate Co of England.
Criterion (GB) This was apparently a 1920s label produced by the Sound Recording Company (makers of Grammavox records).
Crown (GB) The earliest Crown record dates from pre-WWI and was pressed by Polyphon using their own masters. Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. Then, in the mid-1920s, Edison Bell used the name for a 6" disc which used masters from their 6" "Bell" records, but it seems to have out-lived "Bell" by a few months. Then, in 1935, Crystalate produced Crown as a 9" record sale by F. W. Woolworths at 6d (2.5p) from 1935 to 1937. With the exception of a few items which were dubbed from US ARC masters, all these Crowns use UK masters recorded specifically for the label by Crystalate. Dance bands include Mrs Jack Hylton (Ennis Parkes), Billy Merrin and Jay Wilbur's band under many different pseudonyms. Harry Bidgood recorded his accordion band (using the name "Rossini") and there were many popular singers, including Vera Lynn.
Crown (USA) Crown records in America was an independent label, producing its own masters, for the popular market. Adrian Schubert was responsible for the studio band, but many others like Lou Gold, Smith Ballew and, notably Gene Kardos (issued under Joel Shaw's name) make recordings. Some are described on the label as "long playing" and play for up to 5 minutes, using a very fine groove, similar to Hit-of-the-Week. A background hum is sometimes audible, but not too obtrusive. The catalogue numbers started at 3000 in autumn 1930, reaching over 3500 in late 1933 when the label disappeared. Some were issued also on Broadway & Gem in America and on Imperial and Edison Bell Winner in Britain.
Currys (GB) Curry's shops were, like many of the early post WWI record shops, Bicycle shops mainly. In fact, Curry's had been manufacturing bikes since 1884. When they decided to sell records, they wanted to use their own name and initially Edison Bell pressed the records for them (some of these have pasted-over labels) just before the Great War. After the war, Crystalate pressed the records, initally from Guardsman masters, and then from their own "Imperial" masters. In the late 1920s, Currys pasted their labels over old stocks of Piccadilly records. Click here for more information and label pictures	Example of the Piccadilly "paste-over" label
Curwen (GB)
Cymot (GB) An extremely rare label from the Vocalion stable from the early 1920s. Note the similarity in design to the equally rare "Adelphi" label, also from Vocalion which dates from later in the 1920s. It may be that Cymot was Adelphi's predecessor. Both being so rare, it may be that they were produced for Export only.     Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. My thanks to Steve Walker for the label scan.