Greetings,
I have an original Peerless company leather bound book depicting the construction of the Peerless motorcar companies
Cleveland Ohio factory. There is no text, just original black&white photos complete from ground breaking to a
couple photos showing overhead views of chassis in various stages of completion on the assembly room floor. I was just curious if it may hold any
value from a collector, and if so how much, and if there may be any interest in it? I had also thought about possibly
making copies so that many enthusiasts may enjoy it.
Any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated.

BTW I'm from Cleveland and it was passed down in the family.

Barnaby - This is a HUGE find for those of us who appreciate the Peerless car and it's history. I am not usre on worth, because, although rare, there aren't a lot of Peerless fans out there.

I know at least 2-3folks who would be interested and the president of the Peerless Club is trying to write a book about Peerless history. At the least, there are 5-10 of us that would purchase a well presented copy. I would be glad to pay for the copying up front.

Cheers

Hi Jake,
Thanks for the reply. I am glad to hear there may be some
interest in this book. I also wanted to mention that in
addition to the picture book being bound in leather it
has 'Peerless Motor co' embossed onto the front cover.
I am also an auto enthusiast and would really like to find
out the background and reason for this book seeing as how there
is no text in it. I will say it is neat to see the
work horses that were used on site for the heavy loads and
especially seeing the final photos with actual cars in them.

I did inquiry to, I believe, the Pres of peerless.com last
year but lost my email before I could answer him back.
Which unfortunately leads me to my dilemma and the reason
for even shopping the book around. I am in desperate need
for funds. Not so much that I would give it away but enough
so that keeps me stressed out and liquidating more items than I care to.

Believe me Jake, if it was better times I would send you
a copy for nothing just for being a fellow enthusiast but until I can
decide what route to take it might be in my better interest not to
have any copies floating around right NOW.

If I do get some interest and possibly some ideas on putting
together a QUALITY reproduction I may go that way just
so more people could see it rather than one lone collector.

Barnaby

Barnaby,

The President of the Peerless club - his name is Richard "Dick" Litchfeld. I would purchase the book for $100 plus shipping, other then that - I would try ebay of course, with a 10 day auction format tograb everyone's attention, and it should go higher, say $100 to $200, but that is just my educated guess. Occasionally, you see very nice Peerless publications on ebay, and sometimes they don't sell, sometimes they sell well.

Hello Barnaby,
Nice to read about the book of pictures about Peerless Motor Car Co. history. Do you know anything about what years it covers, or what role someone in your family may have had in the company (you said this was handed down in your family)? Within the 1900-1932 period of manufacture, you may be able to estimate the year by the style of car being assembled. How many pages, roughly?

If you were to make photocopies, I might be interested in getting a copy some day, if the photos copy OK. Depending on price, number of pages, etc. Some photos don't copy well...some do.

This is a new forum area on the AACA web-site, so there are still only a few viewers, and fewer still Peerless Club members. You can check peerlessmotorcar.com, the Club website, too. ------Jeff

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your interest. This book contains 50 photos with
the first photo being stamped on the back with "The Caxton
Company, Artists-Photographers-Engravers-Printers, Caxton
Building Cleveland. http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CB

It is a sequential pictorial of the construction of the Peerless factory itself.
From the first pieces of steel rising up to actual assembly of cars.

It is the last 3 photos that would probably be of the most interest and show in this order,
1.A view of
an empty drafting room with single person tables. On one of the tables you can actually
see drawings that are being worked on. Now that I look at
it the is also a partially obscured car in the back of the
room. It appears to be a very early somewhat horseless
carriage looking vehicle. There is also what appears to be
a sheet probably 20ft high serving as a backdrop to the
room that has a full scale drawing on it as well.
2.What looks to be a room off room one with 2,3 and 4 person
length tables and a table with perhaps 50 or so rolled up
drawings.
3.Finally,my favorite. A long 2 story assembly room that looks like
the drafting rooms overlook as it has windows
along the upper floor. There is a long table with what
looks like the workers having lunch. There are two rows
of cars that facing each other.The first car in row one
is just an empty chassis and the rest in row 1 have radiators attached
and strangly a couple of the appear to
have twin radiators. The the second row show a progression
with engines, drivelines and rear wheels attached. and
one at the very end with the front cowl/hood attached.

There appear to be roughly 22 vehicles in this room.
The photos are 7X9 cloth backed and of high quality, high
resolution.

I'm tempted to put it on E-bay with a $10,000.00 reserve
just to see what it gets bid to. LOL

And no, everyone in my family is passed on with no one
to inquire to about its history.

Oddly enough the Uncle who gave it to me was my dads partner
in building the 'Worlds Fastest Corvair' in the 60's and my
Dad was a printer. They were partners and street racers in Cleveland during the 50's.
So who knows who passed it to who over the years.

BTW Before I lost my internet last year I spoke with
Richard H. Lichtfeld who expressed and interst in copies
for his newsletter with the eventual donation of the originals to
the Western Reserve Automotive library in Cleveland, as they have a
large collection of Peerless information.
I need to get back with him as I hate leaving someone hanging.
I hope he will understand the spot I was in.
Barnaby

Hello

I would be very interested in learning what has happened to this book-

Is it still for sale?

thanks in advance

Kim Bohannon

Good Morning!

I am still interested in learning about this book.

Barnaby, my email address is k518m71@frontiernet.net, please let me know if you still have it available.

thanks

Kim

Barnaby,

Sorry to be so long in replying. I appreciate the detailed description of the photos you have about the Peerless factory. It sounds interesting. One of the neater things sounds like the 20-foot-long full-scale drawing on the wall. You may have sold it already or put the project on hold for a while. In case you want to simply make photocopies of the 50 pgs. someday, you can count me in for $15 for the copying and $10 for the manila envelope & stamps. Don't bother if that'll damage the pages ( I don't know what shape they're in ). I don't have the money for anything more expensive. If I hear from a "buy-it-in-a-heartbeat" type literature collector someday, perhaps you could tell me what figure you would consider a serious offer (leave it on the Peerless Forum as a post, or with me on the Personal Message format). Sorry, but I don't know how to figure value of such things. -----Jeff

Jeff and Kim (and others)

We have all made overtures to this Barnaby fellow and I think he is just pulling our chain. He may have a historically significant piece there but it does not do him or us any good under wraps.

He is too vague about it's availability and is ultimately not interested in selling it, which is his perogative. I believe he simply wants to make a "lottery" like sale off it, which is not practical.

So he is not interested in sharing it for a smaller fee, making copies available and he is not willing to offer a price for sale, and he is basically not available as he does not check in to this forum & answer these inquiries except for vague notions of needng to sell it.

Barnaby, either offer your item for sale or offer it for copy-printing. It's value is useless locked in your attic or whatever. It's value to a Peerless collector as a stand alone piece also does the overall Peerless community no good. It's ultimate value is as a shared item, either through a donation to the Western Reserve (which MAY already have several copies, we don't know) or by taking the Peerless members up on our offer to cover printing costs in ADVANCE. All very reasonable offers to your non active momentum created by your post on this forum.

The forum is an advocate for decorum but posts such as yours, without the proper followup or completed intentions, should be removed in my opinion. They are no better then teaser emails bombs a person with email gets, phishing and spam and all.

Excuse me!
I thought I made it clear that I am trying to survive
without giving a sob story. I'm embarrassed about it
and really don't like making it an ongoing topic if you
don't mind
I have other things with clearly defined value that I
am selling to pay my rent, buy food and keep my lights
on for the time being. I'm sorry I don't have the time to stand around
and chew the fat. I just happened to check the E-mail
address that I used to register and saw a message from
Kim. I responded to her like I thought I responded to
everyone else weather they expressed an interest in
buying or just wanted to hear more about it.
I did not think I was "pulling any chains" and I'm
sorry you see it that way. I hope you never hit hard
times but somehow I feel you would divide your time
differently as well.

You still have not decided what you will do with your price of history. Is it for sale, or not? Copy it or not? This latest post offers no new direction for the disposition of the "rare" book you have.

I would think placing it in ebay would be a good alternative. And as mentioned, I'll bet the Western reserve has this book already.

By the way, trust me, we are ALL working hard to stay afloat. BUT, YOU came on the forum and put a big juicy carrot in front of the Peerless faithful and have pulled it back. Hopefully, YOU have communicated with Kim or Dick.

You still have not decided what you will do with your price of history. Is it for sale, or not?

Yes, it is for sale as is anything else in the world.
But, of course at an offer that will make me release it.
I am, however, not giving it away for 1 or 2 hundred bucks.
It's been in my family almost a 100 years and I'll just
keep it at that rate.

Copy it or not? This latest post offers no new direction for the disposition of the "rare" book you have.

As implied when I'm not worrying if I have a roof over my head I will look into making quality copies if it is still
in my possession.

I would think placing it in ebay would be a good alternative.

I may do that but for the time being I am quite busy listing
and shipping much more widely common desirable items.

And as mentioned, I'll bet the Western reserve has this book already.

I bet NOT. Wanna bet $1000.00??

By the way, trust me, we are ALL working hard to stay afloat. BUT, YOU came on the forum and put a big juicy carrot in front of the Peerless faithful and have pulled it back.

I did no such thing. It is still here and I'm still accepting offers.


Hopefully, YOU have communicated with Kim or Dick.

Well, I believe I did say in my last post that as with
everyone else I also wrote her back.

She requested along with a couple of others about some
quick shots, unfortunately my scanner is fritzing out
and I also do not have time at the moment for HOBBY stuff.

I promise you when I have some SPARE time I will play
with it.
Fair enough?

It has survived almost 100 years so I don't think a month
or two in the scheme of things will matter on way or another.