I can't really talk about my reputation with the court case still pending, but I can say that I was not in Chicago that night and the baby doesn't look a thing like me.
You will find lots of stuff in the dead wax and a good part of it is dictated by the label, not the mastering lab. I am hardly the authority on this stuff. Usually, the catalogue number (just thought I'd throw one in for our Brit friends)and matrix number. This information can either be type set or hand scribed. The catalogue number is self explanatory, but the matrix number can tell you what master, mother and stamper were used. Unforunately, there was no standard for this and various labels used different systems of encoding this information, but most of this info is available on the net. The catalogue numbers are generally temporally sequential, and that allows one to broadly date the recording sessions in most cases. The presumption is that the earlier stampers and masterings are better. This is pretty much a trap. Take a common rock album, "Who's Next" for instance. The first Brit pressing, on Trak is quite nice. The second pressing was mastered by Denis Blackham, this is known because his signature, hand scribed, "Bilbo" is in the dead wax. It is, arguably, the best pressing of this old war horse out there and by a very wide margin. BTW his current website for Skye Mastering is a model of the type:
http://www.skyemastering.com/pictures.html
Broadly speaking the best pressings are from the country where the record label is located, as often, masters are not allowed to travel to other countries and safety masters, which are one generation away, are used in other markets. But record producing, mastering and pressing were really pretty loosely structured in the sense that, as soon as you think that you have a rule, you find some recording that breaks it.
Once in a while, some wag, will also scribe a message in the dead wax and there are many threads on Vinyl Asylum detailing these scribblings. "My Cat Is Dead", etc.
In the US, some of the most highly regarded mastering houses are:
Artisan Sound their logo is an "A" with rings around it like the planet Saturn. It kind of looks like a space ship.
Sterling Sound You will find a small type set "sterling"
The Mastering Lab "TML" typeset, Doug Sax worked here and often you will find his initials in the dead wax. He also mastered all of the Sheffeld Labs recordings.
"Van Gelder" typeset, Rudy Van Gelder is certainly the best known recording engineer and mastering engineer in all of Jazz. He worked for all of the major jazz labels, and engineered many of the touchstone recordings of the golden age of jazz at his recording studio in scenic New Jersey.
There are many other good mastering houses, perhaps someone else will chime in.
