Victor

Victor dominated the early record market at the start of the twentieth century, with the first records coming out in 1900. These records had very basic labels. In 1902, Victor incorporated a painting into their label. "His Master's Voice" was by Francis Barraud of a dog named Nipper staring into the horn of a phonograph. This logo would remain with Victor thereafter. The initial label design with Nipper ran from 1902-1905.

Next, the "Grand Prize" label format ran from 1905-1909, then the "Patents" label from 1908-1913. The earliest Victor record I own, from 1909, is of the patents label, which contains lengthy patent text circling along the bottom half of the label. There are, of course, as with everything here, subvariations.

1909

A major label redesign occurred in 1914 with the "Bat Wing" label, which ran from 1914-1926. With the end of the acoustic era of recording music and the start of the electric era, Victor launched another redesign, the "Scroll" label, from 1926-1937. It's wonderful and elegant. Then Victor became lame and instituted the mediocre-as-heck-looking "Circular" label in which the label was encapsulated by a simple outer circle. With Victor, the circle label lasted from 1937-1946, and then as RCA Victor from 1946-1953.

1923	1928
1952