(This list is current, but still certainly incomplete, as of late 2012.)
Justin Miller, Prop. of Bound Staff Press, has a good collection of C&P documentation online at http://boundstaffpress.blogspot.com/p/chandler-and-price-letterpress.html The actual documents are stored not on his blog site but on Google Docs, which requires a Google account.
Boxcar Press has an extensive collection of manuals online. At the time I write this, their manuals for the C&P New Series include:
(Note: For specifications (including weights and dimensions), see the Advertising and Catalogs section, below. These presses are heavier than you'd think, and very tippy.
Boxcar Press has put online the Component Parts List (with drawings) for New Series presses. It's on their Letterpress Manuals download page at: http://www.boxcarpress.com/community/flywheel.html . This Parts List is identical to the one reprinted by Hal Sterne in his Chandler & Price Printing Presses: A Collection of Information (see the next section). The one at Boxcar Press is inscribed on the cover "Rec'd March, 1958"
H. J. Shockey formerly (2000) reprinted "C & P New Style Parts Lists and Charts" at http://web.camasnet.com/~shockey/printing/cppart01.html. As of 2006, this site seems no longer to be online. Its content may still be obtained via The Internet Archive. Go to http://www.archive.org and plug "/web.camasnet.com/~shockey/printing/cppart01.html" into "The Wayback Machine." The Left Side View image seems, though, to be missing from all of the Internet Archive copies. These Charts and the transcribed part names/numbers are the same as those which appear in the Boxcar Press reprint of the Component Parts List and Hal Sterne's reprint; both of those sources also include drawings of the individual parts.
These same images are also online on Justin Miller's site (Bound Staff Press) as a convenient PDF: http://boundstaffpress.blogspot.com/p/chandler-and-price-letterpress.html
Components Parts List
This is a scan of my own copy of this list. This is the same edition as the one reprinted by Boxcar Press (see above); if you're just looking for the information, you should use their version (it's only 516 Kilobytes). This present scan is higher-resolution and in color (though the original is in poorer condition) and therefore is much larger (74 Megabytes).
Fritz Klinke, of NA Graphics, has put a photograph of the "Directions" label for the C & P 10x15 New Series on his flickr account: C&P Directions: http://flickr.com/photos/53177163@N00/3008271735/ This label came attached to the upper left corner of the delivery table of his press when purchased new in the 1950s). The text of this is the same as the "Instructions" reprinted by Hal Sterne in his Chandler & Price Printing Presses: A Collection of Information (see next section).
This instruction label is important because it confirms the direction of flywheel rotation for New Series presses: top of flywheel away from the operator.
Justin Miller (Bound Staff Press) has a scan of an "Oiling and Instruction Chart for Chandler & Price New Series Presses." http://boundstaffpress.blogspot.com/p/chandler-and-price-letterpress.html This chart is similar to, but a different copy than, the charts from Briar Press or handpress.org (see below).
Briar Press has four oiling diagrams for the C & P New Series, in a single PDF file. It may be downloaded from their very useful " Press Manuals: Parts, Care and Instruction" collection. These drawings are the same in content as those which formerly appeared on the Handpress.org site (see below).
Stephen Nelson and Handpress.org: http://www.handpress.org has put online the "Oiling and Instruction Chart for Chandler and Price New Series Presses": http://www.handpress.org/Reference/PDFcollection/PDFs/platen_jobber/oilchart/oil_chart.htm The "Instructions" reprinted here are the same as those reprinted by Hal Sterne and the same as the "Directions" label photographed by Fritz Klinke. The oiling chart is the same as that reprinted by Hal Sterne, and online at The Briar Press.
[Note: On 2009-10-24 this site failed to come up. The Internet Archive ( http://www.archive.org lists it as having zero pages in 2009. These pages are still (at this time) available through The Internet Archive. Go to http://www.archive.org and plug "www.handpress.org" into "The Wayback Machine."]
The "Instructions" in these oiling diagrams also confirms the direction of rotation of the flywheel for New Series presses (top away from the operator).
Alex Brooks, press eight seventeen has put online a document listing serial numbers and dates for Chandler & Price presses (Gordon-style old and new, Craftsman, cylinder) and paper cutters. See his page of PDF letterpress stuff: http://www.press817.com/pdf.html This is the most complete serial number list of which I am aware. It includes Old Series, New Series, Craftsman (several variations), Cylinder, and paper cutters, but does not include the Model N.
This same file is also online on Justin Miller's site (Bound Staff Press): http://boundstaffpress.blogspot.com/p/chandler-and-price-letterpress.html
The list in Fred Williams' 1977 article (see the "Histories" section, below) lists only New Series and groups these by ranges of years. The list in Hal Sterne's Chandler & Price Printing Presses: A Collection of Information (see next section) contains the same press information, but omits the paper cutter information.
Sterne, Harold. Chandler & Price Printing Presses: A Collection of Information . 16pp. 8.5 x 11".
This is a reprint of:
Sadly, Hal Sterne passed away in 2010.
Stephen Nelson (at Handpress.org: http://www.handpress.org) has put online a PDF of an undated (but post-New-Series) Chandler & Price Printing Machinery and Equipment catalog. This illustrates the entire line of New Series presses, with specifications.
[Note: On 2009-10-24 this site failed to come up. The Internet Archive ( http://www.archive.org lists it as having zero pages in 2009. These pages are still (at this time) available through The Internet Archive. Go to http://www.archive.org and plug "www.handpress.org" into "The Wayback Machine." This is a lovely and informative catalog; it's well worth the trouble of looking it up in The Internet Archive.]
Fortunately, Justin Miller (Bound Staff Press) has now put this catalog online on his site: http://boundstaffpress.blogspot.com/p/chandler-and-price-letterpress.html
This catalog has very useful listings of dimensions, etc. One that they omit is the actual "footprint" of the press - the size of the leg/foot castings at floor level (which is smaller than the press itself, which in turn is one reason these things are so "tippy" and hard to move!). On my C&P 10x15 New Series, a very early model from 1911, the front-to-back length of the "leg/foot" casting is 28 5/8 inch overall. The side-to-side width of the pair of castings, measuring to the outside of each casting, is 19 1/8 inch.
Stephen Nelson and Handpress.org: http://www.handpress.org has put online a PDF of an extract of page 1059 from an otherwise unspecified 1906 ATF (he says "AFT," but it must be ATF) catalog, illustrating the "Chandler & Price Gordon Job Press" with both the regular (long) Ink Fountain and the "C & P Buckeye Ink Fountain."
[As noted above, this site seems no longer to be online. There is a copy of this document in The Internet Archive's copy of the site.]
R. Campbell's Five Foot Shelf Press ( http://www.garloo.com/) has a page from an unidentified catalog showing an 8x12 New Series press (with Specifications). He also presents a "schematic" diagram extracted from the 1952 edition of Polk's The Practice of Printing which shows the "Principle Parts of a Platen Press," using a C&P as an example, of course.
From the 1923 ATF Specimen Book
Chandler and Price Gordon Style Presses. Dimensions. Klymax automatic feeder. Ink Fountains. Motorized. These are my scans, so they're slightly higher resolution.
From the 1953 Western Newspaper Union Catalog
Chandler and Price 10x15 NS. For Accessories listed in this catalog, see the Press Accessories Notebooks. These are my scans, so they're slightly higher resolution.
From the 1959 ATF Printing Equipement Catalog
Chandler and Price New Series Presses. [NOT DONE]
Fred Williams wrote an article entitled "C & P - Pressman's Favorite" for a 1977 issue of the journal Type and Press (I don't know the volume and number, or original pagination). This includes a general history of the firm and its presses, along with an abbreviated listing of serial numbers and dates (which groups the years into ranges; the lists reprinted by Alex Brooks (online; see above) and Hal Sterne (in print; see above) do individual years). This article has been reprinted online by the Amalgamated Printers' Association (APA).
Regrettably, the filename in the URL for this web page has spaces in it, which means that while it is remotely possible it might work for you if I presented a link here, it's quite certain that this would fail after this page has been cut and pasted a few times. Why, oh why, do people do foolish things like use spaces in filenames - a practice discredited in the 1950s. In any case, the way you can find it now is to go to the Amalgamated Printers' Association website: http://www.apa-letterpress.com/. Then click on the "FOR MORE INFORMATION..." link which is hard to read near the bottom. Then click on the "REPRINTS FROM TYPE & PRESS" link on the left of the next page. Then click on the article title: "C & P - Pressman's Favorite." The way you'll be able to find it in the future when the APA reorganizes their site will be to Google on the title. Sigh. At least it's online.
In The Heritage of the Printer, Volume 1 (Philadelphia, PA: North American Publishing Company, 1965), Dr. James Eckman has a short, but good, chapter on "The Famous Combination of Chandler & Price." Together with his chapter on "George Phineas Gordon and His Wonderful Dream," it provides a good background to these presses.
( The Heritage of the Printer was published in two volumes. The first volume was by Dr. James Eckman and was issued in 1965 as " The Heritage of the Printer, Volume 1." The second volume was by Alexander S. Lawson and was issued in 1966 as " A Printer's Almanac: The Heritage of the Printer, Volume 2.")
In 2008 there was a discussion on the LETPRESS e-mail list concerning the procedures for removing and replacing the springs in this press. This is a potentially dangerous activity, and it's good to have this information. To find this, join the LETPRESS list, establish a password for web access, and search the archives. The participants were Glenn House, Mike Day, and Greg Fischer. The LETPRESS list is maintained at http://listserv.unb.ca/
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2009 and 2012 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
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