#MeetapressMonday Letterpress Depot is grateful to have two fully operational Washington-style hand iron hand presses in its collection, each with its own history.
The story goes…
that the hand press press above fell from the fourth floor when the earthquake hit San Francisco. Yet somehow, with welds and care, it survived and ended up in Denver printer Jim Grisenti’s amazing collection. His widow Claudia generously donated it to the Depot.
Bryan Dahlberg on the New A Reliance press
The hand press works…
by hand! The type chase is laid face up in the bed, and inked with a hand roller. A sheet of paper is attached to the underside of the tympan which then is lowered onto the type. This combination then is cranked until it is under the overhead platen. With a final pull of the handle pressure is applied and the image is transferred to the paper.
The first iron hand press…
was designed around 1800. Before that time presses were made almost entirely of wood, with a wooden screw to deliver the pressure. Inking was done with hand-held ink balls. With use of more sturdy iron framing and metal for the bed and platen, a toggle mechanism provided a new efficient means of operation and intense competition ensued among inventors and manufacturers. And from that day, everyone was trying to improve it.
Samuel Rust came up with some of the best ideas. This New York printer and grocer (interesting combo) received patents in 1821 and 1829 for what he called a Washington hand press, with changes that are reflected in the versions owned by the Depot. His chief competitor, R. Hoe & company, saw the superiority of the new model and tried to buy the patent. But Rust hated his rival and refused to sell. So Hoe had one of their employees visit Rust and say he also hated the company and was setting up his own manufacturing plant. Rust gladly then sold everything – the patent and all his equipment – for $3,000 and agreed to not compete for eight years. Soon after, of course, the charade was revealed when Hoe took it all over and produced thousands of the model. (Rust went on to patent and sell lamps.) When the press patents expired, several other companies started turning out Washington presses. By 1895, commercial printing had moved on from the hand press. But there was a new market – proofing photo engravings.
Quake surviving press showing open tympan
Two of those companies are represented at the Depot – F. Wesel Manufacturing of New York which made our quake survivor and Shniedewend & Co of Chicago, which made the Reliance press.
New A Reliance at the Depot - photo by Bryan Dahlberg
The “New A” model Reliance was advertised in 1898 as weighing in at 975 pounds. Shniedewend went on to manufacture a wide variety of Reliance presses from the 10x8 baby Reliance to the 5,000 pound Mastodon.
The Depot’s model came from the shuttered Art Institute of Colorado where it had been beautifully restored by Rob Barnes. The Depot’s Tom Parson and Bryan Dahlberg and others dismantled it for the move, then got it back in working shape. In a marriage of digital photography, photo polymer plates and letterpress, designer/photographer/artist Bryan has since used it to pull limited edition prints that he then marries with photography and also to print broadsides.
Want more?
For a list of all the presses at the Depot, see http://www.letterpressdepot.com/blogs-on-type-presses-history/2022/2/27/before-i-tell-you-all-the-presses-we-have . If you are interested in “adopting a press,” helping repair, maintain or use any of them, please call/text 720-480-5358 or email englewooddepot@gmail.com.
More details and further research resources are available from the Letterpress Depot library. All of the above was pulled from a treasure trove of books that the Depot has available for research. The books consulted for this blog:
American Iron Hand Presses, Stephen O Saxe, 1991
Works of Ralph Green 1981 reprint. The iron hand press in America, 1948
A Field Guide to North American Hand Presses and Their Manufacturers, Robert Oldham, Ad Lib Press, 2006
The North American Hand Press Database, www.adlibpress.us/hand-press-database
Printing presses, James Moran, 1978
Nineteenth-Century Printing Practices and the Iron Handpress (2 volumes), Richard-Gabriel Rummonds. 1994
Printing on the Iron Handpress, Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, 1998
Printing with the Handpress, Lewis M. Allen, 1969
Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection , National Museum of American History, 1996
The Ernest Lindner Collection of Antique Printing Machinery, 1971
A Catalogue of Nineteenth Century Printing Presses, Harold Sterne, 2001