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Note: (Space for Dealer's Name and Special Advertising)
Above is a Colt 'Cut' which a printer would use to create custom ads for a dealer of Colt Fire Arms. The 'Cut' was produced by Colt and provided to dealers for their use. Colt also offered to provide advertising material such as 'cuts' to individual dealers for their printer to produce similar or totally different custom ads.
The book images which prompted this article about the Colt Catalog 'Colt's Cuts for Dealers' was generously provided by Colt collector Roger Gottschalk. I am using this information to illustrate and document two items I acquired from a collector. Both of these items are displayed in John Ogle's extensive book: 'The Book of Colt Paper'.
My intent is to share what I have learned since investigating the authenticity of these two 'Colt' items. Colt was NOT the only producer of ad copy, but Colt provided the parts 'cuts' to outside printers to create custom material using Colt images.
Definition of 'cuts': The term 'cuts' refers to images which publishers used to create advertisements for customers. In today's terminology, to Cut and Past printing or an image on a computer would be a fair illustration of the process, but in this case we are discussing 1900-1940.
'Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co.' produced printed paper 'cuts' of images drawn by their company for illustration of fire arms in their inventory. The 'cuts' are images on paper that a printing company would then use to incorporate into a display ad for a Colt firearm dealer. That dealer could be a hardware company or an individual who owned a gun shop.
Colt provided the 'cut' material to the dealer and the dealer hired a printer to create an advertisement with the Colt image and the dealer's name and address. In some cases, Colt produced stock printed material on which the dealer only had to print his name and address. The 'stock' items had a blank space on the front for the dealer's printer to print the name and address or the dealer could simply rubber-stamp his name and address in ink by hand.
1915 cover 'Colt Cuts for Dealers'
Colt instructions to dealers
Cut examples from the Handbook 'Colt Cuts for Dealers'
Stock advertising service for dealers
Examples of revolver images
Examples of images used in Colt ads or catalogs
The number beside each image is to allow the dealer to select which image they wished to use, then Colt would send the dealer the image on a 'block or image mat' which the dealer's printer attached to his printing machine.
In some instances, whole written-ads with images were provided by Colt.
In other instances, only a detailed drawing was supplied for the dealer to incorporate (paste) into an ad. Thus the term: 'Cut and Paste' |
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The two items being discussed below were both created using genuine Colt cuts to generate customized pamphlets for use by a Colt dealer. Selected pages from Ogle's book on Colt Paper are used to illustrate various points. |
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The first example (upper left, 1st row) below is a typical example of a stock Colt pamphlet to which a printer has added the dealer's name and address. In this case it's 'WM. H. Hoegee, Co., Inc.', and the example from this collection is 'W. A. Abel & Co." All sections of the pamphlet are basically a composition of Colt's cuts. No mystery here.
Page from Ogle's book on Colt paper |
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1920 More... Colt Pocket Positive .32 Revolver pamphlet 3.25 x 6 in. 4 pages, printed for W. A. Abel & Co. using Colt's cuts or stock blanks. |
Cut from example W53 shown above |
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The second example is a little more complicated. First we need to examine the examples of this pamphlet from Ogle's book on Colt Paper. As excellent an example of documentation as any collector could wish for. No question there.
Page from Ogle's book on Colt paper for auto .32 and .380. The set (R & L) of images, third down from the top document is a variation shown below in this collection. There is no point made in the book to suggest this variation is 'not Colt's work' or is a reproduction.
Ogle made a point to acknowledge the example in the top right... IS a reproduction, but not the third set down.
Let's assume a printer had this example created for a dealer to use, but intentionally left off the name of the dealer.
Why is this any different than any other pamphlet created for a dealer's use by pasting the cuts from Colt on the stock card? After 100+ years, no one knows the answer.
The example below is just an anonymous stock pamphlet created by a printer (other than Colt?), so what? This could be said to be true of the 'WM. H. Hoegee, Co., Inc.' example above too, but the author did not say that about 'WM. H. Hoegee, Co., Inc.' |
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Colt ad card with space for dealer's name
1915 examples from the 'Cuts' book with blank spaces for the printer to enter a dealer's name and address
Colt's Advertising Service Printing Cuts
Prior to modern printing techniques, the artwork was produced on wood or metal templates from which 'cuts' were then used in the printing process to make catalogs or other advertising.
c.1930s polymer block with reverse Colt image upon which ink was pressed to paper
Colt digital photographic 'cuts' produced in the 1990-2000s for Colt Catalog ads and dealer promotions
Modern examples of Colt graphics (cuts) in use today
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