Nipping press identification

Does anyone know the manufacturer of this nipping press? It looks like it had gold lettering on the top that said the maker, but they are unidentifiable at this point.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you

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Benjd—— maybe posting a pic would help. It’s hard to determine manufacturer without something to go on…

Silly suggestion,! but who knows.
Without harm to Ones self, or the surface it sits on, or the M/c. itself, with care, roll it over 1/4 of a turn, take close inspection of the underside looking for identification marks, Makers OR Foundry of origin.
Occassionally the base(s) are covered with coloured Baize cloth, for work surface protection, unless it (the baize) needs replacing, it is fairly easy to do a fingertip test, i.e. like reading braille.! - Without disturbing the protection.

Rename your picture ‘press.jpg’ an upload. If too big the system will tell you and just make smaller until it uploads.

If when the plate is at its highest you can’t get a bound book underneath it is not a nipping press, it is a document copying press. The majority of presses offered on eBay as nipping presses are not nipping presses.

I honestly don’t think a picture will be much help at all.

In the late 19th century there were probably hundreds of small foundries throughout the world casting and producing a vast quantity of “nipping” or “copying” presses.

I, at one time, had collection of at least 20 of them, all different, and all unmarked.

There was a huge demand for them by any business needing to make legal copies of documents and ledgers (banks, lawyers, accountants, ad infinitum). There were probably tens of thousands of these produced.

Basically anything that had been printed or handwritten in ink could be dampened with a special process and solutions, and pressed against a clean sheet of paper. When enough pressure was applied for enough time, the ink would sightly loosen and some of it would offset onto the clean paper, thereby rendering a legal copy, albeit faint and in reverse!!!! It could be held up to the light and read from the backside.

That, in a nutshell, is the way I understand it. With my little collection of copying presses, I still do have a tray with a lid on it that was used to get the orginals dampened before the transfer.

So, bottom line is you most likely will never know who specifically made your press. Some are fancier and more ornate than others, but there is probably and endless amount of different ones out there.

Rick

Hey sorry guys, I thought I had attached an image on this. Thank you for all the input.

Rick, fascinating history! I had no idea.

image: Press1.jpg

Press1.jpg

I probably should add that I use the few I have left when I print folded cards. I first use an unInked rule on press to create the crease for the fold. Once the cards (think Christmas) have been printed and creased, I handfold them into stacks of usually 25 each and place a few of these stacks into the press (putting clean paper under and on top of them (to keep the card surface clean) and simply crank down the wheel to apply the pressure. Let that sit for a while and then go back and see if you can squeeze a little more out of it.

Let your pile sit under pressure overnight. The fibers in the paper do have ‘memory’ so crushing them overnight pretty much will keep them from wanting to open again.

Then I take my stacks out and do my final trimming at that time.The ‘spongyness’ of the stack has bee eliminated. I’ve been doing this for decades. Rick

I probably should add that I use the few I have left when I print folded cards. I first use an unInked rule on press to create the crease for the fold. Once the cards (think Christmas) have been printed and creased, I handfold them into stacks of usually 25 each and place a few of these stacks into the press (putting clean paper under and on top of them (to keep the card surface clean) and simply crank down the wheel to apply the pressure. Let that sit for a while and then go back and see if you can squeeze a little more out of it.

Let your pile sit under pressure overnight. The fibers in the paper do have ‘memory’ so crushing them overnight pretty much will keep them from wanting to open again.

Then I take my stacks out and do my final trimming at that time.The ‘spongyness’ of the stack has bee eliminated. I’ve been doing this for decades. Rick

I probably should add that I use the few I have left when I print folded cards. I first use an unInked rule on press to create the crease for the fold. Once the cards (think Christmas) have been printed and creased, I handfold them into stacks of usually 25 each and place a few of these stacks into the press (putting clean paper under and on top of them (to keep the card surface clean) and simply crank down the wheel to apply the pressure. Let that sit for a while and then go back and see if you can squeeze a little more out of it.

Let your pile sit under pressure overnight. The fibers in the paper do have ‘memory’ so crushing them overnight pretty much will keep them from wanting to open again.

Then I take my stacks out and do my final trimming at that time.The ‘spongyness’ of the stack has bee eliminated. I’ve been doing this for decades. Rick

Opps, sorry for the triple post should have waited longer for it to pop-up.

Thank you, Rick!