Gloucestershire UK
Hi, I have an “old lady” in my garage, she is a heavy platen. I’ve had her for nearly 30 years, she was old when I got her. I know she is not an Arab! Is there anybody in or near Gloucestershire that can identify her?
Are there any Letterpress Men nearby that I can meet up with?
I myself - an apprentice Letterpress Machine Minder back in 1976 (now 64)
Sorry you havent had any leads on the make of your platen, I have looked in my reference books to no avail.
There are a few letterpress people in your part of the country, for starters you have Gloucester type setting on your doorstep and The Whittington presss who have an open day at the begining of Septmber. Perhaps your starting points could be the The Oxford guild of printers and The British Printing Society, they are holding their annual conference in Bournemouth in April this year..
I am based in Dorset and did my Letterpress apprenticeship back in 1963 - 68. and currently run a Heidelberg platen and a Miehle Veřical.
I would say its an Old style Chandler and Price hand fed Platen. Top right of the bed should be a number. Google it and you will have a manufacturing date. A good press. Mine is 1904
What does the brass plate say by the ink duct. That cam on the left is stumping me. Can you show pics from different angles. Im feeling its not a Chandler & Price because of the cam. My gut feeling is perhaps its not English possibly German or French. Im perplexed but curious as to what it is!
I’d say it would be unlikely to be a Chandler and Price machine here in the UK given they are a US manufacturer (not impossible, but unlikely).
I’ve got a UK manufactured Cropper & Charlton hand fed platen of, I’d guess, similar age which is based on a US Golding Pearl (so similar in fact that I can use Pearl rollers on it, which is handy as they are relatively easy to get hold of, albeit expensive if you get stung for import charges) so I’d say it would be more likely to be similar to a C&P rather than actually manufactured by them.
HW Caslon & Son Ltd produced a machine called an “Improved Peerless” for a while which had a similar impression throw-off lever and complex looking ink duct at the top so it might be worth trying to find a picture of one of those to compare. You can at least eliminate it from your search then!
I’m based in West Wiltshire so only about an hour away from you if you want to compare notes sometime.