Item HT 15171 Printing Press- Clam Shell Platen, Treadle Operation, early 20th Century

Summary

Letterpress printing press of unknown manufacture and unknown date.

The press was supplied for both a treadle and power operation. Styled a clam-shell press, paper was hand fed onto the bed, the press closed for impression and then the printed sheet removed.

Letterpress is a term used to define the process of printing from a raised surface, be it type or block. The term takes it origins from the act of pressing a letter onto another substance, usually paper.

A brass plate records the name of the Printing Supply House, Middows Bros, who were established in London and had agencies in Sydney and Melbourne.

Significance

Manufacturer is unknown but the press is typical of the competition between agents and print supply houses in the first half of the twentieth century, where agent-branded machines from non-English and American manufacturers of cheap manufacturer were brought into the country to compete against established brands such as the Golding and Chandler & Price. Possibly the only one of its kind to survive in Australia, but in the absence of information it is difficult to know. It has engineering relevance, to other clam-shell presses in the Museum collection, by its difference