Ten Old Gun Catalogs for the Collector – Volume 1

Bright navy-blue hardbound woven cloth boards with gold gilt title, author, and publisher on the spine. The spine has slight sun fading but text is still easily readable. Also wear at the top and bottom of the back strip. The front and rear boards are in very nice condition with only slight rubbing along the front and rear gutters and a faint blemish to the rear board. All the corners are sharp with only wear at the tips. Spine is firm with no cracking to the endpapers but has a slight slant. Text block is solid with all pages firmly attached. Slight age tanning throughout. Two-fold out diagrams – the second larger one has an approximate 1" tear where attached. Previous owner stamp on the front free endpaper, stamp from "Ray Riling Arms Books Co., Philadelphia" on the inside rear board. All interior pages are clean with no tears, cracks, or other previous owner marks. Fully illustrated with hundreds of black & white diagrams from the original catalogs. Page numbering is per catalog.

Leroy DeForest Satterlee (1891 – unknown but before 1967) was born in Saginaw, Michigan. While he worked as a clerk in Detroit, and as a topographical surveyor by 1920, his passion was his research and authorship on guns and gunsmiths. Leroy spent a lot of his time traveling the United States in pursuit of his research. He states in the preface, "The writer desires to present a compilation of old gun catalogs in order to preserve them for study and research. These catalogs are seldom found in any of the larger libraries, and have practically disappeared from circulation. At the present time, four volumes are contemplated, and the earlier catalogs are given in this first volume."