letterpress > John Shinal

John Shinal

Created by hww3. Last updated by hww3, 20 years ago. Version #1.

John Shinal was a pressman for the Sunday Independent in Wilkes-Barre PA. He also had a small print shop in a shed in his back yard, from which he did job work for local businesses and organizations. When he died in 1972, the family threw sheets over the presses and forgot about the shop. Last year, the owner of the property died and the property passed into the hands of a relative that wanted to level the shed in the back yard.

There were two presses; an old 8"x12" Challenge Gordon and a 10"x15" C&P New Series, as well as a type cabinet and lead rack filled several hundred pounds of strip material. There were also the requisite furniture and reglet racks and a box of ATF type new in packages, though sadly it was Engravers Old English, a face I could do without.

The interesting thing was that the Challenge press was reputedly owned by Ham Fisher, the creator of the http://www.google.com/search?q comic strip. The family had some documentation to prove the purchase of the press in the late 1920's.

A friend from work helped me move the very nice Hamilton oak double type cabinet with a slant top, as well as the furniture and reglet racks. The cabinet was full of type, most of it pretty well worn, but it did have a complete run of ATF Garamond; though not in enough quantity for anything other than small jobs. A few weeks later, my father and I took the 10"x15" completely apart and hauled it to my shop. It's still sitting in "cold storage" (literally), but I hope to clean it up, as it appears to have been treated very well.

We didn't take the 8"x12" Challenge Gordon, because I felt like I already had enough printing equipment. I'm not sure if anyone saved it or not.

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