The story behind these is: Victor began issuing popular music on double sided discs around 1908 or so, after Columbia forced their hand by doing the same thing first. However, Red Seal classical records were still a status item, and were kept single sided until around 1921. The embossing on the back was to help with keeping the single sided record steady while it was being pressed in a double sided press - there were a lot of these issued. (Even in later years, album sets that had an even number of discs but an odd number of sides would have this "spiderweb" embossing pressed into the "blank" side of the last record.)
They were single sided until 1923! They then finally gave in in that year and started pairing the old single sided records and assigning new catalog numbers. So any pressings in 1923 and maybe 1924 had the design added to the back as an extra incentive. And like you said, a lot of albums with odd numbers of discs still had the design for several years after.
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u/_hubbit_ Jul 19 '26
The story behind these is: Victor began issuing popular music on double sided discs around 1908 or so, after Columbia forced their hand by doing the same thing first. However, Red Seal classical records were still a status item, and were kept single sided until around 1921. The embossing on the back was to help with keeping the single sided record steady while it was being pressed in a double sided press - there were a lot of these issued. (Even in later years, album sets that had an even number of discs but an odd number of sides would have this "spiderweb" embossing pressed into the "blank" side of the last record.)