Hi Everyone.  Ian Sanderson's note on Hupfeld rolls has decided me to
send to MMD the same contribution I recently sent to Julian Dyer, who
is editor of the British Player Piano Group Bulletin.  Here it is.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania.

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War Reparations?

The other day the mailman delivered yet another carton of Post-Bid
rolls to my door.  He now knows to ignore my wife when she tells him
not to leave any more rolls at our place, and they were waiting inside
the front door when I got home from work.  Depending on one's point of
view, the next few nights were rendered melodious as I pedalled my way
through all the new goodies.  Among them were two curiousities; at
least they seemed strange to me.

One was a Choralion roll.  I had bid for it because it was obviously
a Themodist roll, TL 21399 -- Wanderer Fantasie, Schubert, in a nice new
box.  Thank you, unknown benefactor.  The roll leader is made of rather
cheap-looking plain grey paper. The label was simply headed PIANOLA and
underneath the roll no. and music identification is printed  Choralion
Co., Berlin W 9.

I thought Choralion must have been a pre-WW1 German subsidiary of
Aeolian, but when I held the roll up to the light I saw that the paper
is watermarked with a rather familiar design.  It is a sunburst with a
crown inside it and underneath the crown are the watermarked letters
SM.  So what sort of company tie-up is this roll the result of?

The second roll was even more of a surprise.  It's Universal Roll S 496
-- 1st Movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4.  The roll leader
is the usual greyish-green Universal leader with grey tag, paper
fastener and length of green string.  But as I worked my way through
this huge roll I observed that this roll paper, too, is watermarked.
I'd never noticed that on an Aeolian roll before, so I was holding it
up to the light as soon as it was rerolled.  The water mark is VERY
familiar.  It is  Phonola  1919  H & E .  In other words this is a
Hupfeld roll !  Is this an example of post WW1 reparations or is there
a more mundane commercial reason?