This listing is for a high quality A4 Format facsimile of the 1947 Sales Catalog, giving an excellent representation of each model in the 1947 range - including the Norton International, Norton Manx and all roadgoing single cylinder models. It is reproduced in full colour and is in A4 format - fractionially larger than the original Norton format. Price is Each.
As with all our facsimile Norton catalogs - this catalog is copied from an original Norton catalog, but has had much careful work to remove unsightly blemishes and creases (particularly on the motorcycle pictures themselves) that would always be found on original 80 year old catalogs - the result being, that the catalog is close to as it would have been when first produced. As with many of the early Norton catalogs - finding good quality original versions is now difficult and this I believe is a particularly rare year.
As well as showing very clear photographs of the roadgoing (single cylinder) models for 1947 - it also gives an excellent picture of that year's Manx model - but even more unusual, it also gives a picture of the 1947 Trials model - not to be confused with the later 500T Trials model, as the 1947 version showed here employed the earlier 1938-47 engine and a full cradle frame. As an aside - I would love to know how many of this particular Trials model were produced, if any - I have never seen one! It also shows a nice picture of an outift fitted with the Norton Model G sidecar.
As a final point - this particular original catalog came to me with the original prices lightly written against each model in pencil - probably by a prospective customer at the time! As part of restoring the artwork ready for printing, I decided to leave that pencil work in place - so although faint, the original prices can still be seen!
The catalog is 12 pages in total, with 7 full page model representations. It is printed in A4 Landscape format on high quality Xerox paper of a similar grade to the original paper, as with all our facsimile catalogs. It comes in a sealable bag to protect it in storage.
Background to Norton Sales Catalog format:
To my knowledge 1947 was the first year that Norton's produced a catalog year range, after WW2 (there may have been some publicity pictures produced in 1946 when civilian production resumed - but I have never seen a yearly catalog for 1946). The style of this first Postwar Sales Catalog took a major Departure from the Pre-War annual sales catalog format (which was always called 'The Roadholder' pre-war, and normally was in A5 Portrait Format, with a seperate black soft card cover, and rather than full colour - a different 'Primary' colour was used each year, i.e. Red in 1936, Green in 1938 etc) .
For this postwar format - it did not have a seperate cover - instead all pages being printed on the same grade of paper, and a landscape style format with an artwork picture of a Norton being raced as the front page. This particular year still only employed one primary colour (Red) - but with the background white and black - gave very striking pictures - and the artwork very indicative of its age.
Also, the size of these original Postwar sales catalogs moved to an unusual format - normally in Landscape format, and of a non-standard size slightly smaller than A4 format. And the staples for this format were on the left border.
Note: Because this paper size is no longer available (and it would not be possible for us to reproduce it in duplex on modern printers - with staples on the left) - we have reproduced this facsimile in slightly larger than original A4 colour format, and with the staples on the top margin, so the pages are turned by lifting the page upwards. The A4 format means the detail of the motorcycles are slightly larger and give more detail, and as with all our facsimile catalogs - give the modern restorer an excellent guide to what was original fitment for each model for that year.