I got to looking at my roll collection the other day, and found
something that has me curious.  I have several piano rolls with
different brand labels that appear to be manufactured by the same
company. The brands are: Columbia, Capitol, Sterling, Synchronized,
Challenge, American, and Cecile.  While all of the rolls do not have
all of the following characteristics, they all have at least one or
two:

 - Simple, stamped roll label, except Challenge (more elaborate stamped
label), and Starck & Synchronized (paper label like on box).

 - Words printed in rather small type similar to "Arial" font on the
right side of the roll (Cecile has no words).

 - Small perforations in right margin of roll to align word stencil
machine (again, except for Cecile)

 - Same type face used in all roll numbers (no exceptions, but I have
also seen this font occasionally by QRS for their roll numbers from the
years Max Kortlander owned the company)

 - First and last letters of brand capitalized on roll label (Sterling,
Columbia & Starck only)

 - Circular monogram design in background of box label (also Sterling,
Columbia & Starck only)

 - Either a pianist is listed, or they say "Hand Played" (except Starck
and Synchronized)

The oldest is dated 1921, the newest 1928

The Challenge roll has "Capitol Music Roll" at the bottom, while
the Synchronized roll says "Columbia Music Roll Co. Chicago".
I'm wondering:  Were Capitol and Columbia the same company, perhaps
at different times?  Also, were there other brand names used?

Incidentally, I find the jazz selections to be very good, no doubt
drawing on Chicago's sizable jazz community in the 1920s.

Bryan Cather
Arlington, Texas

 [ Bryan, your piano rolls are indeed related: they were produced by
 [ Columbia/Capitol company of Chicago.  See the new MMD Music site,
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Music/  A short history of Columbia/Capitol
 [ is at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Music/CoCap/index.html  Can you help me
 [ with more data and label images for this site?  -- Robbie