The scan of this catalog is a part of The Stephen O. Saxe Archive of Amatuer Press Catalogues. Its primary home is on The Internet Archive at:
http://www.archive.org/details/Cook1877PrintingPresses
The version hosted at the Internet Archive has a convenient read-online version, as well as versions for reading devices (all automatically derived from the uploaded PDF version). For a convenient online reading experience, go there.
The page here has copies of the two PDF files which are the original files uploaded to the Internet Archive (they are identical to the IA files; you don't need to download them from one source if you already have them from the other). It also has the original scans as full-resolution, lossless image files (which aren't present on the IA).
Cook 1877
Catalogue and Price List of Printing Presses, Types and Printing Material Manufactured by J. Cook & Company (Meriden, CT: J. Cook & Co., 1877.)
Click on the icon at left for the 50% resolution (effectively 300dpi, RGB) version of the catalog as a PDF of JPEG images at a JPEG "quality" level of 75. This is 39 Megabytes.
Here it is at 100 percent (600dpi, RGB). This is a PDF of JPEG images at the default "quality" level of the conversion software used (minimum 90). It is 261 Megabytes: cook-1877-saxe-0600rgbjpg.pdf
Stephen O. Saxe explains the business of James Cook and his relationship to the Kelsey company:
"James Cook was part-owner of a block of buildings in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1875. One of his tenants was 24-year old William Kelsey, who was doing well in his mail-order press business. The following year Kelsey moved to other premises. Cook promptly went into business in competition with Kelsey, selling presses made by Daughaday (Model press), Golding (Pearl), and Curtis & Mitchell (Columbian), as well as his own Enterprise (similar to Kelsey's Excelsior) and Victor presses. Kelsey continued to expand his advertising in children's magazines like St. Nicholas and Youth's Companion.
"Cook was a serious competitor to Kelsey, but by September, 1883 he had to admit defeat. Kelsey bought him out (allegedly for $10,000). In the 1890 catalogue, Kelsey wrote:
"DEAD. Competitors of this establishment do not seem to prosper. We have bought out B. O. Woods & Co. Novelty presses, started in Boston in 1864. J. Cook & Co., after spending $20,000 in attempting to compete with our excellent press, have sold out to us at a great sacrifice. Our machines are too good to allow much chance for competition. We shall meet all rivals with cut prices!"
"Cook's Victor press was added to Kelsey's line in about 1891 and continued to appear in and out of his catalogues in future years."
All of the amateur press catalogues scanned by Stephen O. Saxe and presented here are in the public domain. Their reprints here remain in the public domain.
This page, its text, its images, and its encoding, are all dedicated by their authors to the public domain. Please note however that any use of the explanation of the history of the J. Cook company by Stephen O. Saxe without proper attribution and acknowledgment would constitute plagiarism.
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