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The
American Printing History Association
APHA Newsletter Archive
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Preserving, Repairing and Restoring Old Presses
One of APHA’s stated aims at the time of its founding in 1975 was the preservation of the artifacts of printing. While it is no doubt true that APHA has helped focus some attention on these old objects and thus helped to preserve them, that seems to be about all that has been done. It has remained for the collector, the letterpress printer, and the museum curator to do the preservation and restoration. That there is real interest in preservation across the country is a fact that I can vouch for, since I have received many requests for help and information. It seems appropriate, therefore, to use this space to suggest some approaches that I have found useful. They are based entirely on my own experience and they may not suit everyone’s idea of what should be done. The first matter to consider is this: what should be saved from the scrap yard, and what should be left to it? No individual or museum has unlimited space, time, or money and it is essential to make some choices early on. For a printing museum, this usually means a decision on the scope of its printing exhibit. Does the museum want to focus on a specific time, or cover the entire history of printing? Either of these is hard to accomplish, for different reasons; but sticking to a cut-off date is a bit easier. Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, for example, has a unified New England village dated 1840, and the printing shop must fit into this frame. Anything after 1840 would be an anachronism. Bowne & Co., Stationers, in New York has a somewhat looser time frame of the mid-1880s; and this later date makes life easier for the curator because there is much more equipment surviving from the 1880s. This somewhat strict approach is suitable for some situations, but most collectors and many museums take what they find and cherish it. The Friends of the Museum of Printing in Boston, [now in North Andover, MA]--for instance, has among its hand presses and platen jobbers the complete, enormous, computer typesetter used a few years ago to set all the type for the Boston Globe. Moving it and keeping it in storage seems to me to divert much-needed funds from more deserving objects. Yet the question remains: is not this computer part of the history of printing and worth preserving? When does the printing technology of the present become part of the historical record? These are questions that are not always easy to answer, but I am convinced that many collectors and curators do not even ask them. Most of the collectors I know are limited by the space they have available, what they can find, and their budgets. Those with basements or spare rooms available can accommodate large platen jobbers and hand presses; those in city apartments are more likely to confine themselves to tabletop presses or a collection of 1880s rule bending machines. In the end what one collects often comes down to a matter of individual taste, and what one has the luck to find. But it is useful to the collector and museum alike to give some thought to what is being collected, and why. The next question is the matter of repairs. Before acquiring a press it is a good idea to make sure that it is repairable at a cost that is within reason. If you intend to print with it, make sure all the functioning parts are present: gears, shafts, etc. Broken gear teeth can be replaced and broken feed board brackets can be welded or brazed, provided you know someone who can do it. On the other hand, a missing gear can be a much more serious problem; there are very few used-parts stores for 19th century printing presses. [I was informed by Roy Rice, an engineer, that gears in the US had been standardized long ago, and replacements were readily available at parts warehouses. I think Grainger is one, but I have never looked into it and that's all I know.] On old platen presses, the parts that are most often missing are rollers, roller trucks and treadles. The least serious to replace are the rollers, since there are many companies that will sell new composition or synthetic rollers complete on the proper-sized core. The main problem here is to know what the proper sizes are for the rollers and cores, so they can be ordered. (We will consider sources of information in a moment.) Roller trucks can be turned on a lathe, although here again one must know the correct dimensions. Steel is the material of choice, but I have seen somewhat less-authentic looking ones turned from Delrin plastic that work on the press just as well as steel. A missing treadle is more difficult. Many job presses that were sold complete had their treadles discarded by printers who attached motors. A treadle discarded is a treadle lost; hence there are a lot more platen presses today than there are presses with treadles. A treadle can be fashioned from wood or other material that will work satisfactorily, but it will not look like much. And finding a replacement treadle is very, very unlikely. [The late John Hern made and sold iron treadles for C&P presses; some of these may still be available—send an inquiry to Letpress, or The Printer for latest information, see below.] The parts most likely to be missing from an iron hand press are the forestay, the tympan, and the frisket. The forestay (the outside support for the rails) can be easily made from wood, using an engraving of the press from a printers’ manual or catalogue for reference. When Old Sturbridge Village made a replacement forestay for their Smith-Hoe Acorn press, they turned a replica of an old one on a lathe but the material used was aluminum, so it would be obvious to future curators that it was not an original part. Tympans and friskets are very often missing from hand presses. Although they are needed for production printing, they were often discarded at the end of the last century when these presses were used almost exclusively for proofing photo-engravings. Once separated from the press, like the treadle, they seldom returned. Here there is no choice but to have a metal-worker make new ones. Ideally one can take measurements from those on another press by the same maker; but if not available, most iron hand press tympans and friskets are very similar, and can be used as models. At this point we should consider where one can find the information needed to repair and restore a press. One of the best sources, and the most likely to be readily accessible, is the visual examination of another identical or at least similar press that is in good repair. Owners of presses can be located through amateur printing organizations and by placing classified ads in periodicals for letterpress printers. (See the list of sources below.) This approach is fine if you are working on a fairly common old press, like a C & P or a Golding Pearl. If you have a rare press, you may not find another to examine. In case of rare presses, a few sentences in the “Notes & Queries” column of this newsletter may bring some results, but please do not use this approach unless your press is rare or you have already tried other means of getting information. [The APHA Newsletter no longer has a Notes & Queries column; try a classified in The Printer or an e-mail to a listserv, see Sources below.] PEARL PRESSES
Pearl Presses, Nos. 1, 3 and 5. Pearl Presses, Nos. 11 and 14. Catalogue wood-engravings The best source of general information that I can suggest is the trade catalogue. If you can locate a detailed catalogue description and wood engraving of your press, you may glean enough information to make or repair a part. These descriptions do not usually provide dimensions, though, and a certain amount of guesswork may be necessary. Trade catalogues by a press manufacturer are the best; slightly less helpful are the printing equipment sections in old type specimen books. At the very least these catalogue listings will help to identify the maker and the model of your press, and that is an absolutely necessary starting point. Library holdings of trade catalogues are listed in Romaine; see the bibliography below. For old iron hand presses, a wood engraving in a printers’ manual like Johnson’s Typographia or a photograph in Moran’s Printing Presses may be enough to provide the needed information. A trip to the Smithsonian’s Hall of Graphic Arts might be even better. [The Smithsonian's Hall of Graphic Arts was closed, unfortunately, in February, 2004, and is now in storage.] The Smithsonian's collection of hand presses is excellent; other large collections include those of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, the Lindner Collection in Los Angeles [now the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA] and the American Graphic Arts collection in Elizabeth, New Jersey [As of 2005, the owner has announced a decision to sell off the presses in this collection]. These collections also contain many platen jobbers of various manufacturers. The actual restoration of any piece of machinery involves two stages: mechanical and cosmetic. The mechanical is usually self-evident and involves processes that remain much the same as they were in the nineteenth century. The cosmetic stage involves more thought and decision-making. I recently read of a machinery restorer (who does work for the Smithsonian among others) who sandblasts cast iron parts and then coats them with epoxy filler to achieve a smooth surface. Since epoxy is nearly impossible to remove, I believe it is not a material that should be used on a restoration. There is nothing wrong with attempting beautifully smoothed contours on castings, but do not irretrievably change the original. Too many owners of old presses feel that black enamel is not attractive enough for their press. They superimpose twentieth century taste on nineteenth century equipment, with results that are often ludicrous. It is true that a small percentage of old presses might have been painted in some other color than black; but it was unusual and I would be against jumping to another color unless good reason exists to believe it is correct. As in old-house restorations, careful scraping and use of solvents can often reveal the original color of the object; but be careful not to imagine that a priming color was the true color. Black enameled presses were often decorated by pin-striping, the use of decalcomanias, and sometimes gold paint or leaf. If research reveals pinstriping ornamentation, be conservative. Sign painters’ colors are appropriate for this kind of work, used with “dagger” brushes and a sure hand. Pinstriping was often in bright colors, like orange, and usually followed the edge lines and contours of the press. One final caution: be humble. Understand that you may not know all the answers. Be ready to admit mistakes, and correct them. Do not do anything that cannot be corrected at a future date, when you may finally have a true knowledge of the press you own. © 1987 Stephen O. Saxe, republished with permission The Inland Printer, Vol. I No.1 (1883) to circa 1900. For numerous engraved illustrations of the most popular platen presses, as shown in advertisements. Johnson, John. Typographia, or the Printers’ Instructor, London, 1825. Engravings of the various hand presses, including views of disassembled parts. See also other nineteenth century printers’ manuals. Moran, James. Printing Presses. Berkeley, 1973 Photographs and engravings of many hand presses and platen jobbers. The Printer. Published monthly at $10 per annum by Michael and Sally Phillips, 337 Wilson Street, Findlay, OH 45840 Classified ads can be a good source of information for parts and supplies. [Now issued monthly at $25 per annum]. Romaine, Lawrence B. A Guide to American Trade Catalogs, 1744-1900. New York, 1960. Chapter 42 lists the library locations of catalogues of printing equipment before 1900. Sterne, Harold E. Catalogue of Nineteenth Century Printing Presses. Cincinnati, 1978. Excellent collection of engraved views of all kinds of presses. Available from the author at 5815 Cherokee Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45243, for $19.95 postpaid. [Harold Sterne has moved from Cincinnati; a new, much enlarged edition is now available for $75 from the Oak Knoll Press; published in the U.K. by the British Library.] Type & Press. Published quarterly at $2.50 per annum ($3.50 --overseas airmail) by Fred C. Williams, 24667 Heather Courte, Hayward, CA 94545. Excellent for classified ads and general information. [No longer published; some issues are available online through the APA website, www.apa-letterpress.org.] [Letpress listserv, e-mail message distribution list, information: http://members.aol.com/aapa96/lpress.html] Back to Archive Back to Newsletter Copyright 2006 The American Printing History Association. All rights reserved. | |
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