British His Master's Voice Values

this page first published by John Wright, 5 Dec 1997
last update 14 Mar 20059vintage@jabw.demon.co.uk

Note: values quoted are typical prices paid at a record fair stall where the stall-holder knows the demand for music and records.

Usually the most commonly found record label in a 78rpm collection, HMV sold millions of records and many of the popular bands or artistes sold thousands, even hundreds of thousands of certain titles.
The His Master's Voice label has been around for about 90 years and on it you can find just about any kind of music. You'll find mostly 10" records from the 1910's to the 1950's with the 'dog and horn' picture on labels that were plum/maroon/red in colour. The vast majority of these discs are not valuable and sell for £1 or under at record fairs, but there are exceptions depending on age and the type of music.
Popular music was mainly issued in the B seriesand BD series. The catalogue numbering is often a guide to age but isn't always chronological.

Regarding types of popular music, among collectors jazzy tunes are more popular than waltzes or strings-only dance music. Similarly with singers, the popular film and show tunes are sought after more than the ballads. Some dance bands on HMV are favourites with many collectors, particularly Ray Noble, Ambrose, Savoy Orpheans, Paul Whiteman, Jean Goldkette. Jazz is rarely found on early HMV but after 1935 there was a lot of jazz and big band records issued including 're-issue' of many American 1920's bands.

For example:

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Cat. No.	Band or Artiste	Issue Date	Typical Value	Comments
B.260	Metropolitan Orchestra	1913	£2.00	an American studio orchestra
B.962	Savoy Quartet	1918	£4.00	late ragtime songs
B.1991	Paul Whiteman Orch	1925	£0.50	an American band but very common waltz music
B.2189	Jack Hylton Orch	1925	£2.00	lively dance titles
B.2736	Johnny Marvin	1927	£2.00	popular American singer with lively accompaniment
B.2871	Jack Smith	1928	£3.00	a lot of people like this singer, and the accompaniment is hot/jazzy on one side
B.3008	Gracie Fields	1929	£0.50	a lot of people like Gracie but this record is common
B.4001	New Mayfair Novelty Orchestra, Noel Coward	1932	£4.00	the orchestra side is hot/jazzy and features a much sought after vocalist, Al Bowlly
B.4871	Connie's Inn Orchestra	1932	£5.00	this is REAL jazz from USA, actually the Fletcher Henderson Orch
B.5017	Savoy Orpheans	1926	£2.00	this very good 20's band is very popular with collectors
B.5021	Kit-Cat Band	1926	£0.50	again waltzes
B.5173	Fred Hamm Orch Johnny Hamp Orch	1926	£4.00	lively dance titles, American bands
B.5321	Jack Hylton Orch	1927	£0.50	dull dance titles
B.5385	Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight	1927	£50.00	genuine New Orleans jazz
B.5417	Thomas Waller	1927	£10.00	again this is real jazz, 'Fats' Waller
B.5471	Paul Whiteman Orch	1928	£2.00	with the added attraction of Bing Crosby vocals and the prescence of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke but this record sold lots
B.5509	Paul Whiteman Orch	1928	£50.00	yes it's Paul Whiteman again but this record is a rare one, Bix and Bing again
B.5786	Jack Hylton Orch	1930	£3.00	yes it's Jack Hylton again but one title is a hot/jazzy dance tune
B.5909	Ambrose and his Orch	1930	£4.00	another top British band's jazzy offerings
B.6066	Duke Ellington Orch	1931	£5.00	classic Cotton Club music
B.6482	Ray Noble Orch	1934	£2.00	another Al Bowlly vocal, but very common
B.8504	Benny Goodman Orch	1936	£1.00	common big band titles
B.8906	Artie Shaw Orch	1938	£1.00	common big band titles
B.9221	Jelly Roll Morton	1940	£4.00	jazz, re-issue of titles recorded back in 1928
B.10662	Glenn Miller	1944?	£1.00	common big band titles
BD.292	Fats Waller	1935	£2.00	common jazz titles
BD.5047	Ray Noble Orch	1936	£4.00	recorded in US, Al Bowlly vocals
BD.5256	Jack Hylton Orch	1937	£2.00	female vocals
BD.5665	Tommy Dorsey Orch	1940	£4.00	with Frank Sinatra
.	.	.	.	.

These records are only examples of what kind of values are put on HMV popular vocal, dance and jazz records, there will be some records by the same artistes worth more or less, depends on the quality of the music and on how many copies of the records were sold.

There is also a lot of popular music on 12" records, the C series. For example:

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Cat. No.	Band or Artiste	Issue Date	Typical Value	Comments
C.399	Murray's Ragtime Trio	1915	£5.00	popular ragtime sound
C.1395	Paul Whiteman Orch, with George Gershwin	1924	£2.00	historical recording, but quite common
C.1252	Savoy Orpheans	1926	£1.00	a top '20's band, but dull stuff
C.1505	Paul Whiteman Orch	1928	£1.00	although Bix is on one side, Paul Robeson on the other, this record is very common
C.2939	Bunny Berigan Orch	1937	£1.00	well-known jazz record, but very common
C.3231	Artie Shaw Orch	1940	£2.00	big band
.	.	.	.	.

Many people collect opera records from the early 20th century, e.g. Enrico Caruso, Chaliapin, John McCormack, Amelitia Galli-Curci, Alma Gluck etc and these appear with HMV labels in various colours and series, and the earlier issues were one-sided i.e. just one title.
For example:

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Cat.No.	Label Colour	Artiste	Typical Value	Comments
GC.7-52003*	pink	Enrico Caruso	£10.00	1909 issue
7-52053	red	Giovanni Martinelli	£4.00	1913 issue
7-52061	red	John McCormack	£6.00	1914 issue
7-54006	yellow	Caruso and Gluck	£10.00	1914 issue
D.A.1303	bright red	Enrico Caruso	£0.50	very common, double-sided, dubbed 1930's re-issues

* Note: this is a GRAMOPHONE CONCERT record, pre 1910 but has the 'dog and horn' picture on the label.

I would welcome any correction to the opera table, I have the records but am guessing a little on issue dates and values.

HMV records of classical music of 1910-1950 are also common in 10" and 12" form. Orchestral and instrumental (pianists etc) are mostly worthless but some special historic items are sought after. There was a D Seriesand an E Series of black label HMV records, which included all kinds of music, except dance music. So you'll find a lot of classical music, stars of the stage, poets, politicians. Later came the Red DA- and DB- classical series. For example:

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Cat. No.	Band or Artiste	Issue Date	Typical Value	Comments
D 83	Irene Scharrer (piano)	1919	£3.00	.
D 1195	Beatrice Harrison ('cello)	1927	£3.00	.
D 1249	Blech cond. Berlin S.O.O.	1927	£1.50	.
D 1816	Stokowski cond. Phil O.	1930	£1.00	.
E 151	W.H.Squire ('cello)	1920	£0.50	.
DA 1003	Menuhin (violin)	1929	£0.50	.
DB 1039	Casals ('cello)	1927	£2.00	.
DB 1916	Rubenstein (piano)	?	£0.50	.
DB8586 to 8589 4 disc set	Menuhin (violin)	?	£5.00	.
C 3308	Solomon (piano)	1942	£1.50	.

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