Zonophone Coronation Record (Puzzle Plate) 1911

[melvind]

In commemoration of the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary on June 22nd 1911 Zonophone released this 'Puzzle Plate'. A very interesting puzzle plate (record) made by British Zonophone in 1911. This two sided record contains 6 songs. Each side has 3 songs that are interwoven between each other. Each time you play the record you get a random song depending on where the needle catches a songs lead in groove.

 

As you can imagine it was a bit tedious to capture all 6 songs. Lots of starts and stops. The record is a bit worn especially at the start of each side and more so on the second side which contains "God Save the King". Just imagine over the last 100+ years of being played how repeated needle drops occurred to find just the song desired to be played.

 

00:00 Coronation March

00:58 God Bless the Prince of Wales

02:04 Hearts of Oak

03:06 God Save the King

04:13 Rule Britannia

05:11 The British Grenadiers

 

The record label says the band on the two instrumental songs is Black Diamonds Band. The others all say Solo & Chorus, but I assume the same band plays on all 6 songs. This band recorded between about 1900 and 1930 and mostly on the Zonophone label.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by melvind