Aeolian Grand 58-note organ roll. This one has a small bit pasted over the bottom of the label for retail use in the UK. The roll was made in the US
Symphony 58-note organ roll made by Wilcox and White. To play in Wilcox and White's Symphony player organ or their Orchestral piano player (piano player with internal reed organ). The perforations are definately cut for organ use
Angelus & Symphony organ roll made by Wilcox and White. To play in Wilcox and White's Symphony player organ, their Angelus piano player or their Orchestral piano player (piano player with internal reed organ). The perforations are cut so that they sound acceptable on a piano but are not too staccato on an organ either.
65-note roll for Aeolian Pianola. This style of roll pre-dates the introduction of Metrostyle in 1901 though it was continued for quite some years afterwards
This is probably the most novel piano roll idea ever developed! The big cost in roll production was spools. To sell cheap rolls Murdoch & Murchoch of London came up with this idea. The rolls were sold without spools! You bought one special spool with a detatchable end, slotted the roll onto the spool, put the end flange on which locked with a ball bearing type joint and away you went! Special library cases looking like large books were sold to house the rolls. Click here to see more of this brand. It says "Malcolm Music Library" on the rolls as the "Malcolm" was Murdoch & Murdoch's brand name of piano player - funny name!
Imperial brand roll. They were in their heyday probably the biggest producers of rolls in the UK and made rolls for all formats of machines. This label is the same as most of their labels on 65- and 88-note rolls. The actual roll however is a 58-note organ roll (which they also produced) and it is compatible for Angelus and Symphony use being reverse printed and made with a compatible spool. They were the only other company which made Angelus and Symphony compatible rolls apart from the manufacturers themselves.
Melographic. Early American brand of rolls. Have a sprung spool end to keep paper snug. No chained roll perforations. Early rolls on green or grey "lint" paper like Chase & Baker rolls - later ones on standard white paper.
Themodist 88-note Aeolian Pianola Roll. Introduced 1907. The roll has extra marginal perforations which operate the pianola's music themeing system to highlight the melody away from the accompaniment.
Metro Art 88-note Aeolian Pianola Roll. From an early range of true hand-played directly recorded performances by named pianists.
Universal 88-note Standard Roll. Essentially an Aeolian sub-brand made from Aeolian masters with a different numbering series to Aeolians own though.
Pefecta Solo Melody 88-note Roll. Essentially an Aeolian sub-brand made from Aeolian masters with a different numbering series to Aeolians own though. The "solo melody" refers to the fact that the roll has themodist type perforations.
The vast majority of Broadwood Rolls were made from Aeolian masters for Broadwood, the old-established high quality British piano makers. Broadwood fitted a variety of players into their pianos ranging, unusually, from Ampico, Artrio, Recordo to various lesser known standard players. The later rolls come with standard nameless (but really Universal!) grey leaders. Earlier ones have very dark green or very dark blue leaders generally.
Again, Autoplayer rolls, song rolls and ordinary, were made from Aeolian masters - no doubt about it! Another thing you may notice; - all the above 4 roll types all have an "S" prefix to the number and all are made from Aeolian master rolls. Fancy that!
Universal 88-note Song Roll. Essentially an Aeolian sub-brand made from Aeolian mastersd with rolls in a numbered series beginning with the digits 36*** the last three digits being identical to the corresponding tune on the Aeolian 88-note song roll brand (beginning 26***) or the Universal 65-note song roll brand (beginning 46***).
Herbert Marshalls, the London-based UK Wilcox and White agent made Angelus and Artistyle branded rolls. The left and central pictures above show labels dating from when Wilcox and White was still in business. The left image is around 1920 and the central is a few years later. The Angelus wording is in the same style font as Wilcox and White's own labels. After the closure of Wilcox and White in the early 1920's the Artistyle concept of over-printing rolls was continued however in the UK by Herbert Marshall. It was eventually split off as the "Artistyle Music Roll Company" and continued in production until the late 1930's. The right side picture is of one of the labels from the 1930's period. The green style border design was retained. UK-made 88-note Angelus and Artistyle rolls were generally from Aeolian masters. Artistyle rolls have a numbering system all of their own.
Meloto Song Roll. Superseded the range of Aeolian and Universal song rolls in a re-numbered series beginning with the digits 38***.