eBay Tuesday: Optimus Printing Press

In this odd little advertising campaign from 1898, a printing press company has taken out a page in a magazine for this handsome promo of the device used to print said page of magazine. It's a pretty worthwhile tactic, I suppose. "Like the way this magazine looks? Well, here's how we did it!" Indeed, a later advertisement by the company declared, "Our best advertisements are not printed - They print."

An individual seller in New York with the handle jcdsr52 is the person behind this week's selection for a New London item on eBay: an 1898 advertisement from the Harper's Magazine Advertiser. The ad for the "Optimus" Press, used by the magazine for two years, seems to be from May of that year, as it asks readers to look to future issues for boasts on sheet delivery, convenience of operating, and "perfect work at high speed." The ad includes a drawing of the machine and a final motto boldly declaring that they aren't to be taken lightly: "WE GUARANTEE - Satisfaction. WE INVITE - Investigation. WE CHALLENGE - Competition."

So what does all this have to do with New London, you ask? Well, as the advertisement declares at the bottom, the printing press company was based here. According to Volume 54 of Connecticut Reports, compiling cases before the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, the Babcock Printing Press Company got its start here on July 12, 1882 when Nathan Babcock, Charles Maxon, and George Fenner formed the Babcock Printing Press Manufacturing Company. The company sold drum cylinder, stop cylinder, and lithographic presses. Its roots are even farther in the past, with Babcock and Calvert B. Cottrell (both of Stonington) first working together in 1855 and getting into the printing press game in 1867. Babcock bought out Cottrell's share in their partnership in 1880.

Although the advertisements list various outlying addresses for the company, including New York City and Chicago, a 1905 directory places the Babcock Printing Press Manufacturing Company at 50 Pequot Avenue - the same site of the former Pfizer complex now occupied by . I haven't been able to find the ultimate fate of the company, though this page suggests it was still active into at least the 1930s.

But to get back to the listing, I don't think you need to worry about "eBay" being written over it in green paint. The lister says the only damage to this original magazine advertisement is the toning it's had with age. It measures 6.75 inches by 9.5 inches, and no one has taken a bite at the starting bid of $8.99. The auction ends at 3:55 p.m. on Thursday.