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The Empire label of 1917–1921 is well-known to collectors. The unrelated Empire Sapphire Record of c1910–1911, however, is a rarely seen brand that ranks among the earliest vertical-cut brands produced in the United States.

This elusive label was a product of the Sapphire Record & Talking Machine Company (Metropolitan Tower, New York), whose flagship label was the equally obscure Princess.

Sapphire Record & Talking Machine—along with Phono-Cut and Sonora—produced the first American “hill-and-dale” records in 1910, hoping to repeat the success that Pathé was enjoying with its sapphire-ball, vertically cut discs in Europe. But at a time when Victor’s and Columbia’s lateral-cut discs dominated the American market, there was no demand for vertical-cut records in the United States, and all three companies were out of the record business by the end of 1912.

The Empire Sapphire Record wasn’t connected to the Empire Talking Machine Company of Chicago (John H. Steinmetz, president), which was founded in 1915 to market phonographs and parts. In 1917 the company began to market its own Empire label. You can read about Steinmetz's later Empire label, and more than 420 other early brands, in American Record Labels and Companies: An Encyclopedia (1891-1943).

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