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This rarely seen Canadian label represents the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company's inauspicious entry into the record market.

After several years of building phonograph cabinets for other makers, Brunswick introduced its own phonographs in the United States in 1917, the same year that the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company of Canada opened a phonograph factory on Hanna Avenue in Toronto. Its universal-arm machines caused a sensation at that year's Canadian National Exhibition, and the Canadians took the opportunity to announce that Brunswick records would soon be available.

When the Canadian Brunswick discs finally appeared, probably in late 1917, they were vertically cut and offered in a green-label popular series and red-label standards and classical series priced at $1 and $1.65, respectively. The records were distributed by the Musical Merchandise Sales Company of Toronto and were not exported to the United States.

George Blacker's research of the Canadian Brunswick label found no connection to any known American producer, although American performers were featured on many releases. (This example pictured above is actually by Canadian native Henry Burr, but issued under his legal name.) Contrary to some published speculation in Record Research and other now-outdated sources, there was no link to the Rex label. Pathé, however, remains a likely suspect as producer. So far, there is no conclusive evidence of Pathé's own material having been used on Canadian Brunswick, but it is certainly possible that Brunswick commissioned Pathé to produce material for its exclusive use, especially given the close marketing relationship that existed between those two companies before 1920.

Brunswick began recording lateral-cut discs in the United States in or around mid-1919 and introduced their new American discs in January 1920. The last vertical-cut Canadian Brunswick discs were issued in 1920 under standard U.S.-style black labels with a "Jewel Point Record" notation added.

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