artists' books

There is a suggestion that the first printing press was an adapted grape press. Whatever its provenance the early printing presses were solid wooden machines that were an essential part of the printing revolution together with ink, paper and type.

The example below is dated 1550 and was part of an exhibion of Florentine printing shown in Florence about 1980. It is more than likely that this press would have been similar to the one used by Gutenberg in the middle of the fifteenth century and the design did not change until the start of the ninetenth century.

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The next stage was the development of the stronger metal press, and the key figure here is Charles, Third Earl Stanhope (1753-1816) an inventor after whom the Stanhope press was named. This example is in the Victoria and Albert museum in London. Stanhope invented the iron press about 1800 and due to the superior strength over the traditional wooden press, it became possible to print pages double the size that had formerly been printed. For a very few years, until the introduction of steam presses, the "Times" newspaper was printed on Stanhope presses.

While Stanhope's press marked a major technoligical development it was the progeny of this press, the "Albion" in Britain and the "Columbian" in the USA that were the workhorses of the printing trade from the begining to the end of the nineteenth century. And, it was well into the twentieth century before they were completely withdrawn from service by commercial printers. There lives have been extended further still with their use by printmakers all over the world.

below: The end of an era. This auction of printing equipment took place in the print shop in London in the early 1970's and the Albion had been in use for proofing right up to that time.

While large printing firms progressed to steam driven presses and large format printing, the jobbing printer was also able to improve upon his output with a treadle or even motorised platten press of a smaller scale.

In the latter half of the twentieth century lithography using photographic reproduction replaced "hot metal" type and allowed pages to be more easily laid out with photographs and illustrations.

updated 28/02/2006