In June 2020 I had just posted a new article on my Glaswegian Music Publishers Facebook page.
Jigs, Quicksteps, Reels and … Hang on a Minute!
I had promised to write about some of the Victorian Glaswegian James Kerr’s music publications. The entire posting is going to turn into a chapter in the monograph I’m working on, so I’m taking it down from the blog – I’ve continued working on dates and the intricacies of Kerr’s trading career, and there’s every chance that slight details may now be different from what I wrote last year. I wouldn’t want inaccurate information or ideas that I have since developed, to survive publicly online.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 
Dear Karen – I have often often wondered where Charlie Gore (and Nigel) found the date 1875 for the publication of Kerr’s Merry Melodies, volume 1. David Baptie’s 1894 publication is the earliest printed reference I have been able to find for this date. His book is snappily entitled “Musical Scotland, Past and Present: Being a Dictionary of Scottish Musicians from about 1400 Till the Present Time, to which is Added a Bibliography of Musical Publications Connected with Scotland from 1611.” This useful reference was published in Paisley by J. and R. Parlane. Some people seem to think that Baptie is an unreliable author (see Gove) but he probably knew Kerr, given their mutual interests in music and song, and overlapping lives in Glasgow. Thanks for the interesting blog information, Rosa Michaelson
LikeLike
It appears to have first been advertised in August 1885, according to my own spreadsheet. I’d need to go through my notes to find more detail, but I guess I must have been reasonably sure when I was building the spreadsheet! I regularly use adverts in newspapers to get my info, so it’s probably in British Newspaper Archive.
LikeLike