Last week I was in New York to teach workshops at the “Center for Book Arts”:http://centerforbookarts.org/, and also visited a couple of printshops including Daniel Morris’s “The Arm Letterpress”:http://www.thearmnyc.com/information/letterpress in Brooklyn. Some readers may know that has several Vandercooks including this rather unusual SP15 that has a hand lever mechanism to raise the paper grippers […]
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Asbern for sale in Germany
ADR.1, N° 7927, built 1966. The owner, artist “Thomas H. Cremanns”:http://www.tcart.de, Düsseldorf, Germany is moving his studio and wants to sell the press.
MoreVandercook Employee Photographs
Just added a new page of “Vandercook employee photos”:https://vandercookpress.info/employee/photos/. Take a look at a few of the men who built your presses.
MoreEarly Vandercook Manufacturing
This badge, on a 1919 model 20 (SN 1103, now at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum), begs the question: when did Vandercook & Sons begin manufacturing—or at least assembling—presses in-house? Fritz Klinke says that he has not come across any documents in reference to outsourcing manufacturing for this period. However, he does have information on […]
MoreSP20 Trip Spring Repaired
I recently repaired an SP20 at the University of West Georgia on which the carriage had become stuck during the return travel. The photos above shows that top carriage bearings on the operator’s side had been removed during a previous repair attempt. Typically what happens on SP series presses is that the trip spring inside […]
MoreCensus of other brands
I am now soliciting press data for all brands of flatbed cylinder proofs: Asbern, Challenge, FAG, Hacker, Korrex, Reprex et al. See “complete list”:https://vandercookpress.info/other.html. Censuses will be posted in the side bar next the Vandercook Census.
MoreEnglish-made Hybrid Revisted
Donald Kerr at the University of Otago [New Zeeland], informed me of his institution’s Vandercook made by Pre Press Ltd. of London. His photos show a carriage nameplate stating that it is a No. 4 However, the cabinet and feed board styling (and presumedly the inking system were it present) is that of a 215. […]
MoreHalf-yearling
This blog is six months old. Thank you to all the registered users, you now number 83. Together we have generated 55 posts (viewed over 10,000 times) and 254 comments. While these numbers are small, some good information has been captured and categorized for the common goal of extending the life of these presses. To […]
MoreModel 17
This ad from The Inland Printer (October 1918, courtesy of John Horn) shows a Vandercook model 17 Composing Room Cylinder press and a Roller Series press. Note that the company, founded in 1909, is still called Vandercook Press. It was incorporated as Vandercook & Sons later that same year. The street address is for the […]
MoreVandercook Census
I have compiled a list of existing Vandercook Presses. This census is independent of NA Graphics’ records, but thanks to Fritz Klinke’s coöperation will soon be augmented by them. Because NA’s records may not indicate the current owner or note manufacturing oddities and do not include the stamped names of press inspectors, I encourage individuals […]
MoreEnglish-made Hybrid
Keith Stubley in Sheffield, UK contacted me about locating a manual for his Vandercook and sent me two interesting photos. The first shows a nameplate on the carriage with the model name left blank and a serial number that does not correspond to existing records. At bottom, it states that the press was made in […]
MoreNew York Times Article
An article in Sunday’s New York Times online edition “‘Retro Printers, Grounding the LaserJet’”:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/arts/design/10hols.html features a photo of our own Eric Holub. –PM
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