. . . . . . . . Dinosaur Discs Magazine March 2020 No.140
This mini information magazine on old records is issued monthly and covers many aspects of collecting 78rpm records
For Sale - From Talking Machine News
Good Morning. The Postmaster of Spring Street Bury wants to sell you phonographs and records, Edison Bell Records 1 doz 9/6, 100 £3 15s; Columbia 1 doz 10/6, 100 £4 3s 4d
What offers for the following? No reasonable offer refused. Berliner 8gn Slot Gramophone and twelve records nearly new... Offers to Truelove Perfumer Buckie
Berliner Penny in Slot 6 guinea Gramophone with 30/- new concert voice attached; very loud and clear.Will accept reasonable offer (20 records)- H Cheadle 105 Nansen Road Sparkhill Birmingham
For sale Zonophone with improved concert soundbox, almost new cost £4.14s also 18 7in disc records in perfect condition guaranteed; will accept £3 15s bargain- Seymour 3 Distin Street Lambeth
200 New Columbia Records, only tried over a few times,10/6 per assorted dozen- Atkinson's Depot 103 Falsgrave Road Scarboro
Peerless Graphophone cost 10/- with four small records 6/- - White 11 Tottenham St W
Must be sold, leaving country. New Edison popular records- dozen marches by Coldstream Guards 7/6, carriage paid. .. Edison Indestructible Records 6 for 7'6 bargain- Brookes Tweenaways Paignton
Dolly Gray, Beloved It Is Morn, An Evening Song, Penny Whistle, Ladies' Penny Paper, Frangesa March, Poet and Peasant, Zampa overture, March from Florodora, Violin Solo, Intermezzo, all Columbia Grand Records 2/6 each- Danes 40 Lady Margaret Road NW
Will exchange 10 inch gramophone records. So Fare Thee Well (Ben Davies), Recitation on Fighting Mac (Herbert Darnley), Because I Love You (Harry Macdonough), May Day Fireman (Dan Leno), O Promise Me (Harry Macdonough), Killiecrankie (Harry Lauder). L2 c/o TMR 9 Tottenham St W

I must explain that (sadly) these adverts date from 1903 editions of TMN, the first year the monthly paper was in operation. What is interesting is that even in 1903 there was a small market in second hand records, the pioneer days of record collecting! It isn't necessary to add, perhaps, that contacting the addresses in these ads is a little pointless! But you do wonder if these items actually sold, and who the lucky buyers were. And even where those things are today!

Extra Articles

Acoustic Recording Artists:
Catherine Aulsebrook
She was born in Christchurch New Zealand of an Irish mother and an English father. After studying singing merely for pleasure, after her father's death she determined to come to Britain where she developed her voice under Signor Alberto Randegger and Sir Henry Wood towards the end of the first decade of the 1900s.
She came to public attention in the Empire Concert at the Albert Hall, in which she was chosen to represent her native country. Her spirited delivery of Land of Hope and Glory won critical acclaim.
Her first record that I can trace appeared in 1915 on the Popular label (P729) A Perfect Day. Her 1917 recording of Ireland Must be Heaven (Coliseum 1028) was praised for "her clarity and expression." Another Coliseum (1044 also on Jumbo 1527) was of If I could Turn the Clock Back. However her singing that same year on Winner (no 3112) was regarded as inappropriate for one of her talents, her version of the hit number Let the Great Big World Keep Turning from the musical The Bing Girls are Here: "why a lady singer of Miss Aulsebrook's calibre should be relegated to songs of this pattern is beyond our comprehension. She has a voice of rare quality." Better was her In God's Own Keeping (Winner 3165): "what a joy it is to hear this charming lady." Great things were predicted of her, alas never to be fulfilled.

Old Gramophone Societies: Oakwood Hill and District
This was a Surrey based society in the Dorking area, that began after the first war.
The interesting meeting in December 1919 was devoted to a demonstration of "the new Bull Dog records, kindly given by Messrs Bull Dog Records of Farringdon Road." From what follows, one suspects that someone who was in with the ailing company must have seen the meeting as a great chance to do good business. Whether "new" is an accurate description of a label that had been around for five years, I leave to you to judge.
"Our expectations were great," the report continues, "knowing as we do the organisation behind the Bull Dog, but these were more than surpassed. In point of tone in particular and general excellence of finish, they set a lead which might well be followed by the makers of highly advertised and much more expensive records."
In comparison the Bull Dog sells "at the absurdly moderate price of two shillings and sixpence. Had the writer been asked to guess the maker after listening to them, he would have had no hesitation in saying 'Odeon,' there being quite an uncanny tonal resemblance to the now defunct records." Maybe the writer was betraying his own origins?
A hearty vote of thanks was passed to the Bull Dog Record Co for their kindness in providing the programme.
Note: the next few meetings of this group included the playing of some Bulldog records. No other society's reports mention this label at this period, except I did note that the Tyneside Society's April 1920 meeting consisted of "a demonstration of popular priced records, to wit Guardsman and Bull Dog."

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