peerless

Design: The main panel shows a distinctive ‘inverted mushroom’ shape, the interstices being filled with organic patterning similar to the Gennett and Vocalion labels.

The softly curving lines, also reflected in the convex baseline of the label name and the decorative swash flowing beneath it, are very much in the North American ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement which flowered in the early 1920s.

Had a ‘Mexican’ style been adopted (the label featured mostly Mexican music), it would likely have featured the geometric patterning often seen in blankets and other South American artifacts; Mexico has its feet in both North and South American cultural camps.


	Peerless (Mexico) / c. 1948




	Corporate background: Founded in Mexico in 1921 by E. Baptista, Peerless records were pressed for them by Gennett until the early 1940s, when they began pressing their own.				Design: The main panel shows a distinctive ‘inverted mushroom’ shape, the interstices being filled with organic patterning similar to the Gennett and Vocalion labels. The softly curving lines, also reflected in the convex baseline of the label name and the decorative swash flowing beneath it, are very much in the North American ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement which flowered in the early 1920s. Had a ‘Mexican’ style been adopted (the label featured mostly Mexican music), it would likely have featured the geometric patterning often seen in blankets and other South American artifacts; Mexico has its feet in both North and South American cultural camps.





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