Established in 1894 by brothers Émile and Charles Pathé - then owners of a successful bistro in Paris - Pathé Records began initially as a France-based international record label and produced phonographs on a large scale for two decades, until 1914. In the mid-1890s the brothers began selling Edison and Columbia phonographs and accompanying cylinder records. Shortly thereafter, they designed and sold their own phonographs. The company expanded, shifting focus to record making and in 1920 introduced a line of "needle-cut" records exclusively for the USA market. The Pathé brothers eventually sold their European assets to the British Columbia Graphophone Company in 1928, and subsequently, the American assets were merged into the American Record Corporation the following year.