As a relative roll-scanning newbie, every so often I encounter
a roll label which completely defies categorization; see the attached
image of a roll and box label. The label promises an expression-style
performance of Liszt's D-flat Etude by Mark Hambourg, but also seems
to name-drop every brand name it can get away with: I see Ampico,
Artigraphic, Stoddard, and Rythmodik. Worse yet, the Ampico catalog
from 1925 lists Mark Hambourg's performance of the piece as Ampico roll
55574H.
Now, I understand that piano makers had an interest in branding rolls,
normally entailing some kind of specialty label. But I understood the
practice to be an attempt at excluding mention of other brands/labels,
as opposed to stamping the roll with everything they could get away
with. Can someone illuminate this topic?
Marshall Jose
[ Scan of Ampico-Artigraphic roll 41911F labels
[ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/16/11/08/161108_172621_20161108.jpg
[ Ampico (and Duo-Art, too) couldn't settle on a simple, logical roll
[ numbering system. They frequently, almost annually, re-organized
[ their respective piano roll catalogs to introduce new numbering
[ schemes which they hoped would lead customers to the rolls the
[ sellers predicted they would be buying. The myriad schemes just
[ lead to confusion, of course. See more Ampico labels at
[ http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/Ampico/index.html -- Robbie
|