American Brunswick Values
this page first published by John Wright, 6 Dec 1997
last update 14 Mar 2005
vintage@jabw.demon.co.uk
Note: I lived in US for a time but I have limited knowledge of US labels and current values. If you are American then Tim Gracyk is your expert and you can gain valuable information at:
The first green label Brunswicks from 1916 are very rare, but the popular music black labels and celebrity purple labels
are common in record collections. Values quoted below are typical prices paid at a British record fair stall where the stall-holder knows the demand for music and records.
American readers could translate these values directly to $ values as a guide.
For example:
| Cat. No. | Band or Artiste | Issue Date | Typical Value | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2083 | Bennie Kreuger's Orch | 1921 | £4.00 | hot solos |
| 2115 | Green Brothers Novelty Band | 1921 | £1.00 | prominent xylophone |
| 2263 | Carl Fenton's Orch | 1922 | £1.00 | dull titles |
| 2412 | Isham Jones Orch | 1923 | £4.00 | great trumpet solo |
| 2436 | Cottonpickers | 1923 | £6.00 | two hot sides |
| 2442 | Margaret Young | 1923 | £4.00 | very good vocals |
| 2576 | Bennie Kreuger Orch | 1924 | £2.00 | not hot, comedy vocal duo |
| 2581 | Mound City Blue Blowers | 1924 | £2.00 | very popular novelty jazz group of the time |
| 2599 | Gene Rodemich Orch | 1924 | £5.00 | good jazzy titles |
| 2611 | Al Jolson with Isham Jones Orch | 1924 | £4.00 | good Jolson titles |
| 2788 | Ray Miller Orch | 1924 | £6.00 | probably Mole and Trumbauer |
| 3094 | Six Jumping Jacks | 1926 | £3.00 | hot playing, but novelty/comedy |
| 3373 | King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopators | 1926 | £30.00 | much sought jazz |
| 3460 | Fletcher Henderson Orch | 1927 | £6.00 | jazz |
| 3507 | Wendell Hall | 1927 | £3.00 | one side very nice vocal |
| 3922 | Bessie Brown | 1928 | £10.00 | blues |
| 4373 | Red Nichols Five Pennies | 1929 | £4.00 | jazz |
| 6038 | Jungle Band | 1931 | £6.00 | Ellington jazz |
| 6196 | Cab Calloway Orch | 1931 | £6.00 | jazz, Cab vocals |
| 6291 | Boswell Sisters | 1932 | £2.00 | popular female group |
| 6852 | Bing Crosby | 1934 | £1.00 | common Bing record |
| 7608 | Fred Astaire | 1936 | £2.00 | songs from film |
| Re-issues: 1944 | ||||
| 80019 | Montana Taylor | (1929) | £5.00 | jazz piano recordings |
| 80039 | King oliver/ Dewey Jackson | (1926) | £5.00 | classic jazz |
| 80042 | Albert Wynn's Creole Jazz Band | (1928) | £5.00 | jazz |
| 80062 | Louis Armstrong's Red Onion Jazz Babies | (1924) | £5.00 | early Louis titles |
These records are only examples of what kind of values are put on some of US Brunswick's popular vocal and jazz/dance 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.
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