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The Chandler & Price Company was founded about 1881 in Cleveland, USA by Harrison T. Chandler and William H. Price. In 1884 they introduced - what was to become - their famous jobber, which was basically a copy of George P. Gordon's popular "Franklin" jobbing press.
(Gordon's system was that of the bed and platen rotating towards each other, similar to a closing hinge with the platen engaging with the type, printing, then opening out again allowing the rollers to ink the forme and the platen to flatten out enabling the printed sheet to be delivered and a fresh one inserted.)
In 1901 the Cleveland Company purchased the fading Gordon Press Works and the right to use the name "Gordon". They continued operating the Rahway plant under the Gordon name making both the old style and new style presses. Ten years later they introduced their 'New Series,' a more sturdily constructed jobber. C&P engineers discarded the cam-operated rocking [oscillating] platen with one that was hinged below the base of the bed, this however, was not popular with printers as the platen did not flatten out as much as the old style press did and there was less 'dwell' [time] whilst feeding/delivering. The New Series can be identified quite readily by the straight flywheel spokes instead of the curved 'S ' shaped ones of earlier models. The Miller Company manu-factured an automatic feeder for the C.& P. in 1913 for a number of years although it appears to have not been overly popular. The Brandtjen & Kluge Co. also introduced their automatic feeder in 1919 which could be attached to some models. During the 1930's, C.& P. installed their own "Rice" feeders.
The growing dominance of offset printing, after the 2nd World War, sounded the death knell for C.& P. and the last platen presses were made in 1964.
Picture and details courtesy of Hal Sterne
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