Customer Reviews

Griswold Mfg. Co., 1918 Catalog Reprint, Catalogue No. 47 (Price Guide)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Despite passing itself off as a catalogue reprint with a contemporary price guide, this book really only succeeds as a reference source for those few of us who are interested enough in collecting Griswold cast iron that we enjoy pouring over old documents such as this in an effort to learn more about the various products that Griswold made. There are only a handful of Griswold catalogues availible in reprint form, and at present this is the only one of those for sale on Amazon. If you're practically addicted to collecting old skillets and griddles and such, then you'll appriciate the fact that L. W. Publishing made this reprint. It is exactly that; a page-by-page reproduction of a 1918 catalogue of cast iron products (mostly cookware) manufactured by Griswold. If that was all that it attempted to be, I could have givin it a higher rating. I held that fifth star back because of the price guide, which is just a very brief but just about completely useless price list tacked on, appendix fashion, at the very end of the book. Even taking into account the fact that this catalogue reprint was published at a time when more ideal cast iron price guides (Smith & Wafford's blue and red books, specifically) hadn't been around for very long yet, the price "estimates" are laugable at best, and downright careless at worst. No attempt was made to imbibe the price list with the details necessary to make it accurate; instead, price ranges are squeezed into nonsense groupings in a format to fit the pagination of the original catalogue. Unfortunately, the presentation of these pieces in the original catalogue is in no way representative of the price some of them command as antiques today. For example, if you collect Griswold, you know what a serious sin it is (and was, no doubt, in 1996 when this book was published,) to try and group skillet sizes 11-14 into a single $50-$75 price range; a sin that this book committed seemingly unknowingly. (By the way, if you don't understand why that's such a mistake, then no offense, but this book will never hold your interest.)

As long as you don't mistake it for a price guide (despite its own cover's assertion that it can function as one,) and as long as you're into Griswold collecting passionately enough that you actually want to spend hours analyzing an old catalogue, then you'll be glad for this book. But if it seems like a cow flop to the rest of the cows, that's because it was never published with the general herd in mind.

Let me say it again,,,, Cow Flop.