Letterpress Printing – Introduction

Letterpress printing, that is, printing from a raised surface, is generally considered to have started with Gutenberg back in the 15th century. In reality, printing from a raised surface had been around for hundreds of years with the Chinese printing from terracotta tablets and other printing from carved wood surfaces.  It is said the oldest known printed book was…

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1905 Golding Pearl No 1 Printing Press

This treadle powered printing press, serial number 2169, was part of a batch of presses numbered 2163 to 2192 that were finished at the Golding factory on 31st October 1905 and has been dated from factory records1.  It is a hand-fed and foot-operated letterpress printing press, i.e. a printing press that prints from lead printers’ type onto a flat…

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1891 Golding Official No 4 Printing Press

This table top printing press, serial number 1161, was part of a batch of presses numbered 1140 to 1164 that were finished at the Golding factory on 30th June 1891 and has been dated from factory records.  It is a hand-fed and hand-operated letterpress printing press, i.e. a printing press that prints from lead printers’ type onto a flat…

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