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MEGA RARITY! UNBREAKABLE WHITE ‘NEOPHONE’ RECORD ‘DOWN AT THE OLD BULL & BUSH'

Here’s a truly exceptional rarity - the sort even long-established collectors have only seen in books or on websites! It’s a 12” Cardboard-Cored White Neophone Record, produced in London for a very brief period in 1904/5 by German scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Wilhelm Michaelis. These were the world’s first vertically-cut records, predating Pathe. Recording impressario Joe Batten started work for Neophone in 1904 and wrote in his autobiography:- "The inventor of the Neophone "indestructible" record was a German, Dr. Michaelis, and from the Neophone Company emerged the Crystalate records, ultimately to merge by devious progressions into the present-day Decca Company. Every now and then, Neophone would come to a stop for want of capital, but soon Michaelis would find another backer and off we went again.

"Neophone records were made of papier mache, and were advertised as "warranted indestructible". To prove this, Dr. Michaelis would assemble a group of potential buyers at thc top of a four-storeyed building, then standing at the corner of Worship Street and the City Road, and demonstrate by throwing a record out of the open window to the street below. A boy then dashed down the stairs and retrieved the record. This was then played, and as it emitted its normal noises this was clear evidence that it was none the worse for its rough treatment. But although customers did not buy records to drop on the heads of unsuspecting pedestrians, yet all might have gone well had not the records, when displayed in shop windows, curled up in the sun and assumed pathetic surrealistic shapes. The records did not sell, the upshot of this was that many hundreds of recordings of military bands, banjo soloists, concertina players, and singers, both comic and serious, were made, but never heard.” 

Actually, the surface is an early plastic, bonded to a laminated pasteboard core with a beautifully designed paper ‘balancer’ on the reverse.

This disc is number 15641 (the matrix number was also the issue number) and features Harry Fay singing ‘Down At The Old Bull & Bush’, with the title incised into the run-off area.

CONDITION: V+

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Do you like top quality pre-war Jazz, Blues, Hot Dance Band and European Jazz 78s? Then don’t miss our regular Auctions and Set Price Sales at the Mark Berresford Rare Records website. We also have 1000s of top quality 78s and associated ephemera in stock, and over 1000 78s to browse through at Matlock Antiques Centre in Derbyshire.

GRADING. The international standard VJM Record Grading Code is used for all 78s and LPs - for the definitive guide to grading 78s and LPs and how to use the VJM grading system, visit the Vintage Jazz Mart website.  The condition of all our items is Guaranteed and all Photographs and Paper material are original prints, not modern reproductions unless clearly stated.We ship Worldwide - Postage and Packaging charged at cost. 

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We have been selling 78 rpm Records, Cylinders, Gramophones, Books, and other fragile items by post for over 40 years, with thousands of satisfied customers worldwide - see our Feedback and read what other customers say about our grading, packing and prompt shipping.We always combine the shipping costs on multiple items to save you money! If you win more than one item ignore eBay's automated invoice and wait for an invoice from us which will show the discounted shipping total.