MJD in the News!

The Tool Catalogue for the Entire Family

The following article from the Maine Antique Digest is just one example of the acclaim that has greeted this unpretentious publication around the globe.

The Catalogue of Antique Tools

"...deserves a look as pure entertainment, even if you never intend to buy or sell an old tool." Maine Antique Digest, May, 1997

Although this is actually a dealer's catalog, it's so crammed with pictures and information about various tools that it deserves a look as a reference tool. It also deserves a look as pure entertainment, even if you never intend to buy or sell an old tool. There's a four-page index, listing both manufacturers and types of tools. Each of the entries is pictured and described in detail and, of course, priced. In his introduction, Martin Donnelly points out that this catalog, as have his previous editions, has a theme: This time it's "Something Special.." And to read his description of an engineer's brass plumb bob in its original wood box is to begin to understand how someone could covet what was originally "just an old tool." Or read his description of a patent model of calipers from 1869: "the giant technological leap that would allow the United States to rise in the span of a few generations... to the industrial giant of the world." Wow!

Of course, there are many more ordinary offerings, but tucked away on almost every page is something really neat. On page 102 there's a double-handle Archimedean drill with a three-jaw chuck, about which Donnelly says, "a stupid idea becomes a great collectible and business failure all in one fell swoop." The 1997 edition of this catalog has 3000 entries, all different says Donnelly, from the entries in the 1996 edition. He promises a million-dollar catalog in 1998. I can't wait!