The Excelsior Press Blog A Frequent(?) update of events the old Excelsior Press Print shop in Frenchtown, NJ
Read on, McDuff! - and check our latest
Letterpress Rescue listings
Saturday, June 27, 2009 A British Film Crew doing a Discovery Channel Documentary came to the U.S. to shoot some scenes for their production. They were looking for an authentic, working circa 1900 press that could be used to represent the printing of a newspaper headline of the era. Our Vandercook Model 17 proof press was just the machine they needed for their scene. They arrived Saturday morning, we set the headline in authentic 1900 style wood type and pulled some proofs for the camear and they had their headline scene. Glad to be of service. ref Fulcrum TV Friday, June 26, 2009 Al Duran's Print Shop. - Al Duran (1/23/1922 - 4/25/1999) operated a print shop in the basement of his home in Clinton, CT for the last 25 years of his life. He worked for many years for Shoreline Times Publishing Company (until they closed down) and then began his own business. His widow has moved on to a nursing home and the house is about to go on the market. His family was concerned about what to do with the type and presses he left behind. Al's grandson George spent a lot of time in the shop with his grandfather and decided that it was up to him to see that this precious equipment found new homes where it would be appreciated. He came to us for help preserving this equipment. On Friday, Clay Oliff, Rich Polinksi, and Alan Runfeldt headed up to Connecticut to rescue this equipment. Al's daughter Barbara recorded the event... See the flickr set of photos from this adventure. The Heidelberg Windmill has gone to be the centerpiece of Clay's new shop in W. Va. The Golding Jobber, The old Advanced Cutter and the type and other items are being integrated into the collection of the Excelsior Press Museum Print shop. 
Saturday, June 20, 2009 A rush job this week - a 5x8 Kelsey restoration which had to be ready by Saturday night for pickup on Father's Day - Sunday. Tina found this press in a consignment shop in Ohio and brought it to us to be made usable again. She came in on Tuesday and now, on Saturday evening, it is ready for pickup tomorrow. Restored, printing and proven with proofs! Her husband is a graphic designer who has always wanted his own platen press... and now he will have it!  Saturday, June 13, 2009Well, one more press has left the shop... We took Sarah's restored 8x12 Chandler & Price all the way out to Long Island and managed to actually get it - and her type cabinet and even her paper cutter - safely into the basement of her parents' home - not quite my favorite choice to a place to deliver a press to, but a far, far better place than her own 3rd-floor condo... This is the press that Rich Polinski (http://Frontroompress.com) had already disassembled and cleaned thoroughly and was his original "Front Room Press" until he swapped it for Mr. Grossman's early series 10x15. In fact, Rich easily did the breakdown of this press at the barn and then the reassembly when we reached its new basement home. After learning to hand feed on our 1870's treadle-operated 9x13 George P. Gordon press made by Damon & Peets, Sarah decided that she wanted to run her press by treadle. But, Herns' treadles are made for the New Series 8x12 and would not fit this 1893 early series, so Rich fabricated a beautiful, well-engineered and smooth operating treadle for her - of Hickory! It's beautiful, it's strong and it works very, very well. Sarah is quite pleased with it... This press is now the quietest 8x12 I have ever heard run. Just about the only sound you can hear from 5 feet away is the ringing of the ink disk as it rotates on each impression... We'll post a full page about the move - with some interesting technical photos about how we moved the press and Mr. Grossman's 19" Challenge lever cutter down some steep steps and through a 30" basement doorway. Watch for a link to that from here soon.  Saturday, May 30, 2009Jenifer came to the shop - all the way from Long Island - with the newly restored 5x8 Victor Press she got from our friend Lou. Although she brought her new Boxcar Base and photo polymer plate with her, she was amazed at the ease of settting and printing from type. She also learned how we cast Ludlow slugs and she printed a few pieces from that as well. We expect that she'll be coming back for some serious lessons in hand composition and will likely be printing her own wedding invitations (using the Boxcar Plate) on the Vandercook before long...
Saturday, May 2, 2009 Sara brought her friend Jennete to the shop to score table tents for the last wedding invite set she printed here. Got some great video of them both pumping the treadle and hand-feeding the old Gordon press - with Rich serenading them with his guitar. Watch for video here and on Youtube just as soon as I figure out what the problem was posting to Youtube and get the video posted. In the meantime, you can download the 100k video file to watch on your pc locally (.mov file, compatible with most video players) Saturday, April 25, 2009 An interesting day. I managed to make it into The Center For Book Arts in NYC to meet with Paul Moxon as his guest/assistant during his weekend Vandercook maintenance workshop. Although I have used my Vandercook Model 4 since 1975, I did learn some very interesting new facts about it. After the workshop, we all headed over to The Arm in Brooklyn where I finally got to meet Dan and see his collection of type and presses. Quite an interesting visit there as well. I have photos and more to tell about this day, and will add to this posting as soon as I can. Friday, April 24, 2009  Well, I finally got
around to printing myself some new cards - on Mr. Ishill's old 1927 treadle-operated Golding Pearl.  A simple design, using the favorite old lead foundry casting logo I've used for 40 years... Such a peaceful image... Set in Baskerville and Bernhard Gothic Light. Nice fonts. Printed on a classy tan leatherette duplex. Old waste cover stock I cut down to business card size some 25-30 years ago.. I ran some in Peacock Blue and some in Van Dyck Brown. Dunno which I like better.. I needed some cards - hadn't had a current card for a while - the printer without cards - not an uncommon occurance... But I'll want some to hand to Paul Moxon and Dan and others when we meet tomorrow at Paul's Vandercook Maintenance Workshop being held at the NYC Center for Book Arts. After the workshop, Paul & I plan to go visit Dan at The Arm in Brooklyn. Field Trip! ;) Those rubber rollers have been on the Pearl since it arrived in our shop from Joseph Ishill (Oriole Press) via Barbara Croneberger in 1972. Amazing that they still carry ink. New ones would improve the print quality, but these old sulpher-based rubber rollers (no longer available) have kept their life for at least 36 years! And, I took a photo of Platen Press Row at the Excelsior Press. Pearl, Gordon, Pilot, 10x15 C&P & 12x18 C&P   Saturday,
April 11, 2009 - Gabe brought his whole family along to see the shop on Saturday - and to discuss repairs to his Kelsey 5x8 . His grandfather was a publisher in Brazil and his mother recalled visiting the Monotype composing room to check galley proofs when she was a young girl. For her, the visit here was a step back in time... And, his charming younger sister Julia, learned to set type by hand and saw how the form is locked up in the chase. I suspect she may do some letterpress work of her own some day in the future. Thursday April 9, 2009 -  Rachael Kondylas came by on Thursday to pick up her press and kit and a quick lesson on how to use it. As has happened more than once here at the Excelsior Press, she was accompanied by her parents on her trek up here all the way from Baltimore. They were also quite excited about Rachael's new adventures into letterpress printing. S  hown here is a photo of Rachael proudly
holding up her first print. A
moment before this photo was taken, I heard a very positive expression
of pleasant surprise as she made her first print on her new press...And, the thank-you card to the right was done after she was home at her own shop. Ah, the next generation of printers is growing... March 29, 2009 - SHIPPING YOUR KELSEY PRESS  Todays' first matter
of
business - see how NOT to pack a Kelsey press for shipping - Logan's sad story of a
6x10 damaged in transit...This press was very poorly packaged by the trained staff of a local UPS Store. Before you ship your press, please take a look at the results of poor packing. ---------------------->
March 20, 2009 - a visit by Isa and Natalie who will be taking their Rhode Island Restored Kelsey to Taiwan. While at the shop, I dug out some Chinese Type which Natalie printed on our 1925 Vandercook Model 17. Rich took notes on the meanings of the characters in this form and may well be printing a translation soon...    
March 15 - The Excelsior Press team welcomes Chicago's Paul Aken to the shop - with The Kelsey Company's own building sign - won by Paul at auction in Connecticut. We tried repeatedly to stump Paul with something in our collection - some 2 dozen presses - that he did't already have.. no luck. Paul's got 200 presses in his collection - and thousands of books on printing and typography - far more than we can ever hope to have. Rich, Paul & Sarah in photo. We will be shipping the sign to his museum in Chicago. (Yes, Paul we promise to ship it soon..)  March 14 - John Crombie of the Alexandria Township Historical Society came by to borrow a set of rollers for the 8x12 C&P we helped them rescue a few years ago - and which we then stored in the shop for a few years. Now the press is in place in their building and Rich & I are helping them put together a working display. February 27, 2009 - Same as my last post - so much has happened - how to keep up with this blog?
Thanksgiving Day, 11/27/08 - So much has happened since my last entry, that I almost don't know where to begin, so here's a bullet list of reports I still have to make here:
This weekend, I will be seeing a couple from Long Island, who are bringing their new Kelsey press to the shop with them to learn how to use it. And next week, another Kelsey owner will be bringing his to the shop to do as Rachael did - to assist in the restoration and then learn how to set type and print with it! Ah, I'm so glad that I have a print shop in a barn and that I kept this collection of presses and type and other equipment for these past 40 years or so... It really is a pleasure to go to work there every day. Sat, 9/13, 2008: Just Found Dave Seat's photos of us on his web site... These are from just last month: Alan & Barry - Alan & (the new) Ludlow -M See our photos from his last visit in 2002 See Dave's extensive collection of photos of more Printers Around the Country and the World Friday, September 12, 2008 - Rescue Alert - Complete Letterpress Shop near Jacksonville, Florida needs a new home Thurs, Sept 11, 2008 IF YOU ARE IN OR NEAR IOWA!!! I just heard about a great event - The 15th Annual Midwest & Great Northern Printers Fair - September 19 and 20, 2008 in a permanent display at the annual "Old Threshers Reunion" in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. This is like a permanent museum print shop with lots of type an presses and even their own letterpress newspaper! Wow. After seeing the photos of the layout in the big hall - I wish I could be there! Friday August 1, 2008 Today's project was printing posters for the local Town Picnic in Frenchtown. Not a great job, but sorta fun. I didn't take any photos of the posters, but I do have some online from last year. - 2007 http://frenchtown.com/police/PrintedPoster.html I think I'll print the other side in red later tonight or tomorrow. That will let the poster be viewed from either side of the windows they will likely be posted in - like down at Frenchtown's IGA market, over at Don Shaible's Barber Shop, and other places in Frenchtown Wednesday, July 30, 2008 We've posted a new page showing photos of a press found in Greece. Petros is trying to identify the manufacturer. I couldn't tell him - can you? Please take a look at Press in Greece and telll us if you can NAME THAT PRESS! Update 8/7 - Well, it looks like we have a very possible answer. Check out the page for that and more as Petros writes us the story of this press being used by the Resistance during WWII !! Saturday, July 26, 2008 Today sets a milestone in the history of The Excelsior Press and myself as a compositor. Dave "Hotmetal" Seat stopped by today and serviced and wired up our new Model M Ludlow slug caster and Barry Mueller's old reliable Intertype line caster. We also serviced the old Model L Ludlow and will be casting with it again as soon as the motor goes back on. Having all three casters working means we need to produce a type specimen book, showing the fonts we can cast. We have over 50 fonts in Ludlow Mats and likely as many in Linotype mats, so making up the specimens may take some time. But, once that is done, we intend to offer linotyping and ludow hot metal casting services. We are casting from both machines now and it is very, very exciting. And now that I have a Ludlow to play with again, my wife has a slug of 36 point Clarendon Bold that says "CATHY" on her dashboard. Next, I'll be setting and casting font samples for the other fonts in the four Ludlow cabinets and a few dozen Intertype magazines, at least, plus some more mats sitting in galleys. Watch here for another announcement and link to specimens and ordering information. One reason this getting the Intertype working is so important to me is that when I was seventeen, I worked at Interstate Printing in Plainfield, NJ. It was a 100% letterpress shop, printing wildlife magazines with four-color illustrations on some large Miller 35" sheet fed cylinder presses. All of the type was either hand set, Ludow or Linotype. But all of the metal compostion was handled by the ITU union guys. The thing is, I wasn't in the ITU, so these union guys wouldn't even let me in to look at the Linotypes, which fascinated me no end. It was very frustrating not to be allowed to learn something that intrigued me so much. So now, 41 years later, I have finally realized that dream on my own (with Barry and Dave's help, of course) and have sat down and typed on the obscure Linotype keyboard layout and have cast lines of type. A dream long-delayed, but now come true. I'll add some photos and do up a dedicated page of Saturday's activities when I catch my breath. |
PiA Noche
and her friend Steve came by the shop with the little 3x5 Old Style
Kelsey Excelsior restored by Lou a few weeks ago. This press is so
small and portable that they carried it in a gym bag! Now that's a
first. PiA selected some type from our 'for sale' collection, then
designed, set and printed some very nice cards for Steve before the day
was out. 
2/18-25/09 -
I flew down to Florida to meet with my two brothers and
visit our 84-year old Mom - who wanted to see "her three sons" at one
time, so I was away in the warmth for a week. While there, we made time
to meet with Stephanie of 
Sarah did a rather large run of some really
nice wedding
invitations on the Vandercook a few weeks ago. We had to move the press
into the Heidelberg pressroom for warmth while the temperature in the
larger shop was just too cold to print. 
