SIR HENRI

The record label SIR HENRI was produced by several manufacturers for the Simpson-Crawford Company, a New York department store.

The International Record Company (Excelsior, International Record, et al.) produced the earliest series; Leeds & Catlin took over production after IRC suspended operations in mid-1907.

Leeds produced several different catalog series, all known examples of which correspond to Imperial catalog numbers in the last four digits (e.g., Imperial 45221 = Sir Henri 25221). The final Leeds-produced series was double-sided and used the same three-digit catalog numbers as Peerless.

In 1910, Columbia sold a quantity of Leeds-produced discs that it had relabeled as Sir Henri discs to Simpson- Crawford, resulting in a lawsuit by Victor for selling infringing merchandise (see Introduction, p. xxii).

In its final incarnation, Sir Henri consisted of nothing more than surplus single-sided Columbia or Star pressings with Sir Henri labels pasted over the originals.

Source: Discography of American Historical Recordings