The company Orpheon was founded in Warsaw in 1906 by Boruch (Bronisław) Rudzki. Initially it sold musical instruments and rented pianos. In the 1920s the company entered phonograph market and began to sell turntables Orpheon made from Swiss parts and record phonograph records. It made many of recordings of the classic Polish literature for schools. The text was recited by well-known actors, radio announcers and professors. The company's greatest merit is recording the voice of writer Stefan Żeromski and Marshal Józef Piłsudski.