Ron Smith said
Is there an interest in annual product catalogs put out by Winchester?  

Until I started into the wild and wacky world of Winchesters, I didn’t realize how important annual catalogs were. They not only provide visual reference for the looks of finishes and tooling but provide important date information as to when/what became available. They also provide ,occasionally ,important rarely recorded names of employees pictured in factory settings. Hopes are that today’s editions of gun manufacturers will survive and that tomorrow’s will still be available in print. Electronic editions are nice but how long will they be available? I hope they keep them in print. I believe that even today FN copy of model 1886 will, in 100 years from now, be a treasure. Ones to be collected and hopefully still shot and enjoyed. After all, the 200 year old originals will be too valuable to take out of the safe.

mjuarez0829 said
Thanks Bert!  

 

I also have #79 but didn’t have a picture of it.  I also have another catalog but i think its a reprint?  But if it is, its a really good one!

Bob has the same catalog and same thoughts on it….Anyone else have this catalog or the original one?  

I do, and if you look at the inside front cover, you should see “Reproduced by O’Hara Co, etc.”  It IS a really good one, without the horrible plasticized covers used by Wolfe and many others.  Without that “repro” notice, and dirtied up some, it might even pass as original; WRA catalogs have been reproed for such a long time that the early ones are now looking quite “old”!  Also have a very similar ’93 without the repro notice!  Seems like such notices should be required by law, but there’re certainly not. 

JWA said
Also,

This set of catalog reprints from the beginning through 1919 has brought some of the prices down as well although a copy of these is now starting to get harder to find.  While I personally prefer an original catalog, for people that are just looking at the catalogs for a quick reference on a day to day basis this option is very appealing as it saves wear and tear on the originals and is a cheaper alternative. 
 
   

Yes, but that hardbound set has got to be pretty pricey itself.  And of course the world is FULL of people incapable of perceiving any difference at all between a first ed. of a book like Whelen’s American Rifle or Gould’s Modern American Rifle and a mass-market reprint; and I don’t mean they choose the reprint merely because they can’t afford the cost of an original–something I’ve often had to do myself–I mean they really don’t see any difference–a book is a book is a book!

Hi Y’all-

I hope this does not tick anyone off, but I draw a distinction between the information in the catalogs (which should be available to anyone) and the original catalog itself as an artifact (which has intrinsic value to a collector).  The notion (which I’m glad to say nobody here has expressed) that knowledge should be reserved to those who can afford to track down and buy original Winchester ephemera would be a little disturbing to me.

FWIW… I have the bound set of catalog reprints JWA shows above (even though I do not collect in the relevant time frame) and am glad that Cornell publications sells scanned catalog reprints that are clearly NOT intended to be passed off as original (and valuable) documents.  

Knowledge is power…  At least the power not to be mislead – if you do your homework.

Lou