letterpress > crated press

crated press

Created by hww3. Last updated by hww3, 18 years ago. Version #4.

The press wound up being donated to the http://pennsvalleymuseum.org in Aaronsburg, which is half way between Lewisburg and State College in a rural farming area. The item didn't fit with the museum's mission and the museum wanted to renovate the barn it was being stored in, so they were anxious to find a good home for it. My father and I loaded it up onto a tandem axle trailer we rented from U-Haul (the trailer worked wonderfully) and hauled it to its new home at our barn near Drums where it's sitting comfortably while awaiting clean up.

The story about its origins and work history (if any) is somewhat sketchy. The story we got from the folks at the museum conflicted, were that it was crated up for travel when the depression hit and ended up in a warehouse until it was eventually sold as part of a lot at http://www.letterkenny.army.mil/, which is odd. There was a crate with rollers that had markings for shipment between Navy installations in Brooklyn and Scotia, NY. Which might explain how at least that box ended up at a military installation. The larger crate has some writing that's rather hard to read, but we think that it was destined for the "Coal County Printing Equipment Company". Its serial number is D61826, which would place its somewhere in the 1929-1930 range. Another set of markings said "processed 12/5/50".

The press is remarkably clean; it was stored in its open crate, so there is a good bit of dust and some surface rust. All of the critical areas, like the ink disc, platen and bed were covered with something along the lines of cosmoline. There seems to be very little wear, if any, the roller saddles don't seem worn, and there is no evidence of grease or oil anywhere. Some of the original paint is peeling off, and there are some spots that have rusted, but it all seems to be cosmetic. Things that make me think it's not brand new include the motor control mounted under the feed boards, and what looks like a drop or two of red ink on the roller arms, but either can be easily explained away.

Some initial pictures taken at the muesum's barn can be found in the 2005/CratedPress folder at http://hww3.riverweb.com/album/index.htm?dir

Not categorized | RSS Feed | BackLinks