Among the records you can easily find at flea markets, one series invariably catches the eye: La Guilde Internationale du Disque. This classical music subscription collection distributed thousands of copies in the 50s/60s. It's not certain that the recordings are of very high quality or meet the expectations of music lovers. The album covers, however, are awesome.
Reader's Digest of Classical Music
The Guilde Internationale du Disque was a very popular system for selling classical music records by monthly subscription, created in 1953, which published the greatest composers: Brahms, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Verdi, Händel, Strauss, Mozart, Schubert, Rossini, Bach... A Reader's Digest of classical music, in a way! Shops also existed in Paris (half a dozen) and in the provinces (Nantes, Strasbourg, Nice, Marseille...) before gradually disappearing in the 80s.
Graphic Heritage
It's hard to say how many references make up this collection - probably 200 to 300. Not all of the covers are exceptional, especially those illustrated with a photograph. But we would pay a lot to see the mysterious illustrators (Graboff, Chemayeff, Suter, Antonucci, Kilpatrick...) who bequeathed us this magnificent graphic heritage, made of visuals that are both simple and sophisticated, sometimes austere, and in a warm, identifiable color palette. Framed, these covers would look perfect above a piano!
Double Pleasure
Since these records don't have much value given the number of references and quantities pressed, their quest can be done at a low cost and without getting up at dawn. For the ultimate collector's delight, the French and German versions have different colors for our double pleasure! Come on, it's spring, head to the flea market in search of the famous Guilde logo: two hands holding an conductor's baton encircled with laurel.
