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I regret the confusion. The disc that I purchased is an American Victor 19621.

thanks for clarifying that for me.

Could you tell us the take numbers of each selection on your copy of 19621? That is, looking in the runout area, if you imagine the stamped catalogue number is at 6 o'clock, what is the number at 9 o'clock for each side?

Many thanks, Mark

Both titles are take 1.

EDVR does not show these as being the issued takes.

Yes, EDVR and Bolig agree that the known issue of Victor 19621 contains "Hark, Hark My Soul" (matrix B-32167 take 2) b/w "Prayer of Thanksgiving" (matrix B-31266 take 4). As you saw in EDVR, take 1 for both titles is marked "Hold." Well, your disc proves that they did not hold it.

It is a shame that Steven Barr in the article you pointed out,

http://www.capsnews.org/barrvic.htm

… did not mention the take numbers on his disc. His collection was purchased by three Canadian collectors, and I will try to find out who wound up with it and what take it is.

EDVR does not fully list Victor's Canadian issues, but there is an interesting one here:

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.ph ... ds_its_way

… from July 3, 1925, where the issued take in the USA, Canada, and the UK was the electrical one, preceded by 14 acoustical takes, none of which were apparently used. On Victor 19621, the Company used the reverse approach, with the early take being the electrical and the later take being the acoustic one. Victor 19626 also uses low-numbered takes (in that case, take 2). It's too bad the surviving documentation doesn't show the disposition of take 1 of those matrices.

Please post label scans with the runout area showing as soon as you can, and many, many thanks!--Mark

I will certainly post the scans soon. My qualm is that I've probably messaged too much about this topic already.

You said that the higher takes are acoustic? Thus, are there copies of Victor 19621 that are acoustic? I'm afraid that I don't quite follow--my fault.

My apologies, I was looking at Bolig when I posted rather than EDVR. What I meant to say is that Bolig and EDVR agree as to which takes were issued (take 4 matrix 32166 and take 2 for 32167). As I posted before, Bolig and EDVR do NOT agree regarding the prefix; Bolig says it is "B," and EDVR says it is "BE." If one believes Bolig (and Steven C. Barr), Victor 19621 was issued in the USA as an acoustic recording. EDVR holds out hope that take 4 of matrix 32166 and take 2 of 32167 were electrical recordings, as your disk shows that take 1 of the each matrix are.

Best wishes, Mark

Not the clearest scans, but hopefully quite sufficient.

thanks for posting These. Could you put a piece of plate glass on your Scanner to level it out and try again? I just wish the numbers in the runout area were clearer. Even so, this is quite a revelation!

Best wishes, Mark

Sure, let me see what I can find so that the take numbers are visible. I'll try not to take several weeks about it, either, as I did with posting these.

No update from EDVR, and I assume no response from the author(s) you mentioned?

no, if I had heard from John Bolig or Allan Sutton from Mainspring Press, I would have posted here. That's why I'm hoping you can get clear skins of what's in the runout, the better to get their attention.

EVRD never got back to me either. in my opinion, at least,you have made an extremely historic Discovery!