Edison Bell

The company survived through several incarnations, becoming a top producer of budget records in England through the early 1930s until, after it was absorbed by Decca in 1932, production of various Edison Bell labels ceased.

[6] A negotiation for Gouraud's resignation brought the desired results, and as they were in America, the Edison and Bell-Tainter interests were merged into a new company in Britain.

In November of that year, the Edison Bell Phonograph Company was formed with headquarters at Bartholomew Lane in London.

[11] Edison Bell spent similar efforts engaged in patent disputes with other would-be phonograph manufacturers, including the Edisonia company run by James E. Hough, a former sewing-machine salesman from Manchester.

The American trade paper The Phonoscope blamed Edison Bell's "exorbitant" prices, as the equipment was twice as expensive in England as it was in the United States.

[15] Edison Bell was thus assigned patent rights in Australia, China, Japan, South America, and most importantly the United Kingdom.

[16] This version of the company sold phonographs and records, while a new organization, Edisonia, Ltd. was created to be the manufacturing arm of Edison Bell.

The war of words in the press eventually led to a blacklisting of Edison Bell by National, cutting off a large portion of their phonograph supply.

Ltd.[32] Edison Bell cylinders were marketed under the several names, including Grand Concert, Indestructible Ebony, London, Popular, and Standard.

[40] In the early 1920s Edison Bell sought to develop a substantial catalog of "serious" music, and selected conductor Joe Batten (1885-1955) to lead the effort.

Notable among these was a 1925 version of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius conducted by Batten, embodying about three-quarters of the score.

[52] The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society (CLPGS) publishes a history and full listing of Edison Bell disc records in their Reference Series of books.