Ducretet Thomson

French label that was introduced in 1950 by Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston and Maurice Selmer of Henri Selmer Paris and the Selmer label. CFTH were a manufacturer of radios. The label was distributed in several countries. In the US for example, it was distributed by London Records. In 1958 Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston went into a partnership with Pathe Marconi, with the companies distributing each other's products. Eventually Pathe Marconi took over the label. Some sources state that happened in 1984 although Billboard Magazine already lists Ducretet Thomson as a Pathe Marconi label in the 1960s. The "Ducretet" part of the name comes from "Ducretet et cie." a company that CFTH acquired in 1929. Ducretet et cie. was a French company founded by scientist Eugène Adrien Ducretet which produced, among other scientific instruments, an early "plate phonograph", or tinfoil disc player (1879) and a tinfoil phonograph for cylinders. The repertoire focused on world music, including UNESCO recordings.