First post, looking for advice on a recent find

retrom3er

January 02, 2014 06:45

Going through some of my Great Grandfather's papers I came across a stack of old firearm catalogs, price lists, flyers, etc. (He worked for Winchester from the late 1800's to about 1925) mostly Griffin and Howe, Parker, Woodward, et al. Notably, an as-new Woodward and Sons catalog from 1921 with a signed letter from from James Woodward to a dealer in NYC extolling the virtues of their double guns. I'm not sure how to value these items, some of which are museum-worthy. Any advice or direction would be appreciated.
Thanks
Sam

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  rufe-snow

  January 02, 2014 06:57

  Your stuff is known to collectors as ephemera. There are folks who collect specifically, firearms related ephemera. Although they are not common.
  
  Best marketplace IMHO, would be fleabay. That way you can make direct contact with the collector. If you were to sell it to a specialist dealer in ephemera, on the other hand. They would be buying it on a wholesale basis, to resell at a profit.

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  beantownshootah

  January 02, 2014 07:38

  Only thing I'd add are that paper items printed on acid-rich paper (which was almost universal in use after the 1850s) will decay with time.
  
  90-125 year old paper catalogs almost certainly fall into this category, and may be already subject to some decay.
  
  While there are chemical treatments that can be done to reduce/stop the decaying process, those are usually done for historical works, and I don't think that sort of thing would be practical or cost-effective for materials like this.
  
  Barring that sort of thing, proper storage in temperature, light, atmospheric, and humidity controlled environments is key to preserving these types of documents as long as possible. Oxygen, light, and air pollutants all potentially contribute to faster decay.

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