A Pilot Press is a very sturdy and well-designed tabletop press. We were contacted by the owner who recently moved to the area and had acquired the press recently and wanted it cleaned, painted and checked over. The only thing missing was the grippers and actuator which we fabricated for her.
Presentation of a copy of the Handprinted and bond copy of Beowulf accepted by Director Gio Sipp on behalf of the Kennesaw State University College of Art and Design at the Student Art fair in December
Rick Paller, reviewing pages from Beowulf during production in the Letterpress area of the KSU Printmaking Studio
The Beowulf exhibit will be on display at the Mable House Art Center in Mableton. In the foreground is the Red Onion mobile express which will be used to demonstrate letterpress printing on Saturday, April 15 during the Taste of Mableton being held in the park surrounding the Art Center.
The Red Onion Press presents a limited first edition of original illustrations by Bronislaw Bak of the epic medieval poem Beowulf accompanied by a 1910 translation from the original Old English by Frances B. Grummere. Printed from the original hand carved blocks which were lost for 50 years that recently came to light; the wood blocks were used to print a photo ready image for mid-1960’s elementary classroom slide film commissioned by Encyclopedia Britannica. The slide film is no longer available as are the now rare antique viewers. This First Edition of 50 pages contain both the images and the full translation in a tribute to the original work that will now be preserved as well as an art project that provides a great teaching experience to all involved. Each book in the edition will be made available for purchase after publication for $500 each. Starting with this exhibit, a pre-publication 25% discount will be offered to those who wish to purchase. Contact the Red Onion Press for more information at www.redonionpress.org
The colored images shown are replicated from the original hand printed and painted by the artist, Bronislaw Bak. The pages in the edition are printed directly from the blocks in black ink.
This project, a collaboration between local artists and advanced printmaking students at KSU will involve the full range of letterpress, relief printing, text design and layout, as well as editing and proofreading and book binding.
Corn Oklahoma’s Lightening Jobber Press standing inside a barn
This Fall, we were contacted by the Mayor of Corn, Oklahoma, a small town with a population of about 500. Corn has an interesting history which the town is proud to celebrate. The town was officially founded in 1903, settled by German-Russian Mennonite families. Today it is a typical midwestern farming community located some 84 miles west of Oklahoma City. Recently one of the townsfolk donated a largely intact late 1800’s Lightning Jobber platen press. Two years ago we restored a Lightening Jobber that had been donated to the Red Onion, and was purchased by a letterpress printer in this area. The town intends to clean up their press and display it along with other artifacts from their history.
From the size we’ve determined that it is a 10 x 15 Model Jobber press. At one time there were quite a few of these presses around, but now they are rare. If you have a 15 inch dia ink disk with a 1 3/4 in stud or know of one that can be purchased please email us at the Red Onion Press. We love to be able to help bring these old treasures back to life.
The finishing tasks for the restoration of the 1880 vintage Columbian Press are nearly complete. With a new paint job and repairs scheduled for this week, the press will soon be ready to be displayed.
New overlay paint drying
,Ayanna Daughtry, REd Onion Press, checks her overlay paint
Each part had to be meticulously cleaned, wire brushed, painted and assembled. This design was one of the earliest iron printing presses of the 19th Century. The distinct ornate symbols frequently painted with gold leaf and colors festooned heavy iron parts throughout the castings. The Columbian was invented in Philadelphia in 1830, but manufactured in Europe throughout the century by various companies. Unlike other iron presses of the time which used spring force, the counterbalances served to raise the ram to the top of it’s stroke, allowing the press bed clearance. Final assembly will include adding the tympan and frisket, draw arm, outboard stanchion and counterbalance beam. Once those are in place we’ll be able to make final adjustments and pull a first impression. Our goal is to be finished by the end of the month.
The Columbian Press is assembled, cleaned and has been coated with a black undercoat. It is ready for the ornate trim, typically applied to these early 19th century cast iron presses.
We have also reassembled the Reliance Hand Press which is ready to be painted as well. The Reliance for the last two years has been operating at the Red Onion Press on loan in Downtown Kennesaw. Now in the expanded printmaking area, the press has it’s place of honor in the letterpress section of the new building.
The ornate 400 lb. Columbian press, built in England goes back to the 1830’s
Over the last two years, Red Onion Press has been tapped to do restoration and maintenance work on a collection of antique letterpress printing equipment that had been donated over the years to Kennesaw State University.
Shown here is the Columbian Press, on display at the Museum of Printing, north of Boston, nearly identical to the version at KSU. Starting with the Columbian press restoration, the project will include two other large floor model presses and roughly 50 tabletop letterpress of all types. Most of the work will take place on campus in a dedicated area in the large expanded printmaking department of the following months.
With the coronavirus, there hasn’t been any opportunities to take our new “old” traveling hand press on the road for obvious reasons. Recently we received a reprint of a catalogue published by Hickok Manufacturing in 1875 containing a drawing of our Hickok press.
While it doesn’t give a manufacturing date, it’s reasonable to presume based on it’s model number, No. 0 that it is easily one of the earliest cast iron machines made by the 176 year old manufacturing company.
So, this has been a time to test methods and materials and plan for our other goal of producing a first edition of the woodcut illustrated “Classics of Medieval English Literature.” Our conversion of the Hickok book bindery press into a book printing press on wheels has given us a very solid platform to be able to set up and print both the illustrations and text using the 348 lb Hickok standing press as a letterpress.
Sixty years ago when the woodcut illustrations prints were carved and hand painted for Encyclopeadia Britannica's series of film strips it was always the intent of my parents to create a first edition of the series in book form in their studio workshop. An earlier project, a television production of some 80 illustrations to a narrative of the Pardoner's Tale by Chaucer in St. Paul was later published as a first edition of 180 legal sized hand printed and bound folios. Nearly all of these which were sold to patrons and schools in the Midwest serve as the inspiration and guide for our efforts today.
While the woodblocks are in excellent shape, and print well, the challenge in publishing is in the content. The text that is in the slides is a very limited summary of each story given the space limitations of the media and the youthful age of the intended audience. Following the example of the Pardoner's Tale, we would convey the story line using original text excerpts from original and use antique type font to help create the setting. My parents used "Cloister Black" a form of Old English type font, which was popular in the days of letterpress and moveable type and still readily available in the 1960's. Today, while some of this letterpress font can be found and even cast, it is not widely available and would be a challenge to find in the various sizes and quantities we would need to publish even a limited edition work.
One solution we have been experimenting with is laser engraving type from hardwood. Last summer, a small laser etch machine was donated to the Red Onion which is showing promise. Cloister Black font is available in a digital format and when processed through software can be used to print individual fonts and whole paragraphs. The font is processed, reversed and mirrored to create the images the laser uses to carve into the wood. With considerable tweaking to the setup, we have been able to do a number of trial pages with the original woodblocks and text printed side by side. Below are a couple of examples.
