Fonotipia Co. Ltd.

Fonotipia Company Ltd. was an UK record company and factory incorporated in London on 24 April 1906. The same year the Italian branch Società Italiana Di Fonotipia change the name in Società Anonima Italiana Di Fonotipia and the English company take the complete control of this new company. On February 1908 the company introduce a new low-cost label the Jumbo-Record. Fonotipia had a number of affiliations. The International Talking Machine Co. m.b.H. was licensed to sell Fonotipia material in all countries except U.K., U.S. and Canada. Columbia Phonograph Company Gen'l was the exclusive manufacturers and sales agents for the U.S. and Canada from March 1908. On matrix runout the Fonotipia Co. Ltd. are credited like "MADE FOR FONOTIPIA COMPANIES" In 1911 it was acquired by Carl Lindström A.-G. and in 1915, the British government introduced the "Trading With The Enemy" acts which prohibited German firms operating at all in Britain. This meant that Lindström had it's offices and factories seized by the government. In 1917, the Columbia Graphophone Company bought the old Lindström business from the government and founded the Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd.