BP wrote on Mar 25^th, 2018 at 7:24pm:


It couldn't; but is that 1902 date printed in the catalog, or a guesstimation?

BP wrote on Mar 25^th, 2018 at 8:23pm:


In other words I assume, it's not a date in the original catalog.  However, I think I've just found the source of that date:  there's a catalog date chart in Cope's book that I'd forgotten about, which gives 1902 for #50 and 1904 for #51.

Up to about 1900, catalogs were dated, sometimes month & day, so hard to see the logic in beginning with #50 in '02--unless Stevens really had published 49 catalogs up to that time...a little hard to believe.

But there's something about Cope's chart that is also a bit fishy--he provides numbers for catalogs going through 1942!  Whereas I've never seen a post-war catalog that wasn't dated like those pre-1900.  So don't know whether to trust this chart or not.

BP wrote on Mar 25^th, 2018 at 9:31pm:


Has anyone seen a date on the spine of an original catalog?  I haven't, though of course I haven't seen them all; still, inclines me to think it was added by Cornell, which could be checked out.

BP wrote on Mar 25^th, 2018 at 10:25pm:


NO!  If there was, there wouldn't be all this confusion! Beginning with #50, until 1919 when catalogs were dated again, Stevens management apparently thought it would be amusing to keep everyone guessing.

Well, not really, but it's true absolutely that someone decided it would "look better" if a catalog could not be identified as "last year's" merchandise; with only a number, a catalog could seem "ageless."  (Though what can be seen in some numbered catalogs are ink stamps over a particular item that say "discontinued.")

I have an original Stevens #53 catalog, and some pages have the purplish ink stamps over a particular item that reads "This Model Discontinued." It mentions a number of Championships that occurred in the year 1912 that were won with Stevens firearms. One page has a very small 9-01-12 tucked in a lower corner.
Perhaps my original #53 is a revised version of the original #53 catalog, that Cornell made a reprint of and shows with an issue date of 1911.

Phil,
Looking inside my #50 catalog, I see text that says "On January 1, 1902, we were the largest producers of firearms for sporting purposes in the world."
I think it might be safe to say that the #50 Stevens catalog was released after January 1, 1902.

Here's a partial list of Stevens catalogs from Cornell (and it looks like they've already reprinted Redsetter's catalogs so I don't think he need worry about a quid-pro-quo)...
Stevens 1902 - Pope Rifle Barrels and Specialties 
Stevens 1903 No. 50 Rifles, Shotguns, Pistols Catalog 
Stevens 1903 Gun Telescopes and Mountings Catalog 
Stevens c1904 Arms & Tool Company No. 51 (earlier issue) 
Stevens c1905 Arms & Tool Co. No.51 (later issue) 
Stevens 1907 Arms Company Catalog No 52 
Stevens c1908 Shotguns Catalog 
Stevens 1908 Guns and Gunning 
Stevens 1909 Firearms General Catalog & Component Parts No. 52 (revised) 
Stevens 1911 Firearms General Catalog & Component Parts No. 53 
Stevens 1912 Arms & Tool Co. Shotguns Catalog 
Stevens c1913 No 11 Rifle - Pistol Catalog 
Stevens c1914 Firearms # 54 General Catalog 
Stevens 1918 Arms Company Gun Catalog 
Stevens c1920 Firearms General # 55 Catalog

uscra112 wrote on Mar 26^th, 2018 at 12:54am:


But where does the 1903 date come from? 

Well, I just answered my own question by going through page by page looking for a dated testimonial.  There were none, but on p. 42 is a dated list of Pope's scores, the last one being 1-1-03.

BP wrote on Mar 26^th, 2018 at 5:46pm:


That was reported by my original (unknown) source:   "I wrote that date (1901),and also the note, "revised 1903," on the copy I have... Only thing I'm sure of is that the original source for those dates struck me as reliable, or I wouldn't have accepted them." 

However, 1901 for the 1st ed. may be too early, because Cope gave the date as 1902.   

Clearly Stevens ended their previous practice of dating catalogs in favor of revising undated, numbered, catalogs--seems a sure recipe for confusion.