Tom Paine Printing Press

WICKER WOMAN - A RECENT ADDITION , & OTHER NEWS

2011-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic of Wicker Woman (or T'Wicker Woman, as we used to say in Sheffield). She found her way to The Tom Paine Printing Press a few weeks ago, and I liked her poise so much that I asked her to stay.

I'll be showing my 'BLAST?' letterpress book (images to follow) at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair at Oxford Brooks University on 5th & 6th November (damn! I'll be missing Lewes Bonfire).

Recently I've printed a small broadside 'Hurrah! For Bonfire', and also a front cover for the December issue of 'Viva Lewes' (also images to follow).

RECENT & FORTHCOMING ACTIVITIES

2011-09-18T05:36:00.000-07:00

Two views of Jonny Hannah's work at The Tom Paine Printing Press

It seems I've been too busy printing and running the Tom Paine Printing Press and Press Gallery to update this blog! Recent events of note were attending the Ditchling Museum Ball (to raise funds for the redevelopment of the Museum) last night at Mount Harry House, a visit to the Whittington Press Open Day on 3rd September, and putting on a show of Jonny Hannah's 'McVouty' and other work at the Press Gallery which ran for two weeks and three weekends during the Lewes District Artwave Festival in late August and the first part of September.

Later this week I'm showing my work at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair (Thursday 22 Sept to Sunday 25 Sept). NB: Thursday is by invitation only. This will be a chance to see my new large-format all-letterpress artist's book 'BLAST?'. I'll post some photos here soon. I'll also be showing some other letterpress work, and my poetic photobooks.

During the first weekend in November I'm showing a large selection of my work at the Oxford Fine Press Fair at Oxford Brooks University.

NEW LONDON LETTERPRESS PRINT: SWEET THAMES

2011-06-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

Here is the forme, and an artist's proof, for my new limited edition print, a typographical map entitled Sweet Thames. So many peple liked my earlier print The East London Line, which covered the same part of London, that I decided to produce this new one. My standard size for these prints, dictated by the maximum sheet I can print on my replica 18th-century wooden common press, is a bit larger than A2, and to print this sheet I have to pull three times, winding the carriage under the platen in three stages.

RECENT WORK AT THE PRESS, MAY 2011

2011-05-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

Ditchling Museum Ball forme on the bed of the Common Press

Ditchling Museum Ball print

A Bodoni Bestiary; in 48pt Bodoni Italic, printed on Khadi hand-made paper
on the Albion benchtop press

48pt Bodoni Bold Italic Alphabet printed on Khadi hand-made paper
on the Albion bench-top press

VISIT TO STANHOPE PRESS AT DITCHLING MUSEUM

2011-05-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today I visited Ditchling Museum, where Jenny KilBride, Chairman of the Trustees, was kind enough to show me the Stanhope press (No. 50), and explain to me the development plans for the Museum (see www.ditchling-museum.com).

This is the very iron press brought to Ditchling by Hilary Pepler when he set up his first printing operation there (intially known as 'Ditchling Press') in January 1916. At the same time it was joined in Ditchling by a crown folio Albion press and two founts of Caslon Old Face type. The name of the Press was later changed to 'St Dominic's Press', after the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, but reverted after a couple of decades to 'The Ditchling Press'. This Stanhope press was later owned by Justin Howes, but returned to Ditchling after Justin's death in 2005.

The press, and indeed all the contents of Ditchling Museum, is being put into store for a couple of years while the Museum is being renovated and enlarged, so I was lucky to be able to see it in situ before it is dismantled. The Museum is currently appealing for funds for the renovation and building work, and is planning a big fundraising ball in September for which I am designing and printing in letterpress the poster and publicity artwork.

I am also working on a book on Ditchling printing to coincide with the reopening of the Museum. This will focus on the materiality of the printing establishment at Ditchling, rather than on the products of St Dominic's Press for which there exist several bibliographies.

ALTAZIMUTH PRESS & TOM PAINE PRINTING PRESS AT BRISTOL ARTISTS BOOK FAIR & IMPRIMERIE CLOT, BRAMSEN & GEORGES, PARIS

2011-05-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

Brilliant Trolley Service Theatre at BABE 2011

Customer Dance at BABE 2011

Two of my Typographical Prints at BABE 2011

Voirin Cylinder Direct Litho Press at Imprimerie Clot, Bramsen & Georges, Paris

Two more of my Typographical Prints at BABE 2011

My Altazimuth Press and Tom Paine Printing Press Stand at BABE 2011

Row of my Typographical prints at BABE 2011

Voirin star-wheel direct litho press at Editions Atelier Clot

Two of these images are of lithographic presses (an old Voirin star-wheel press, used for proofing, and a powered Voirin cylinder direct press) at the Editions Atelier Clot, Imprimerie Clot Bramsen & Georges Paris, which we visited last week and where we were very generously shown around by the master lithographer Christian Bramsen. It was particularly good to see very large lithographic stones being used.

The other images are of the Altazimuth Press and Tom Paine Printing Press stand at the Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE) on 30 April and 1 May, which was a great success overall, and particularly for the Altazimuth and Tom Paine Printing Presses. There was a huge amount of interest in my creative typography, some of which I showed last September at the Whitechapel (London Art Book Fair).

New ALPHABET prints

2011-02-26T13:09:00.001-08:00

Here are two new ALPHABET prints which I've just composed and printed. The top one is in the form of a folding card, printed on Khadi hand-made paper. I just pulled 26 words out of my head for this. It's printed on the Albion press. The height is roughly that of an A4 sheet.

The lower print is a composition created from the 26 letters of the alphabet, all upper case, and all set at 45 degrees to the paper edge. This is printed on the wooden handpress (the 'common press'). It is a bit larger than A2 size.

Columbian Press & Tom Paine Printing Press at Works on Paper Fair

2011-02-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

This Columbian Press, in front of my stand at the Watercolours and Works on Paper Fair, is unfortunately not part of The Tom Paine Printing Press's stable of presses! It's the last remaining press in the Science Museum's old printing gallery on the second floor. All the others have been moved out and put in store.

Printing is getting a rough deal from museums in London: no printing gallery any more at the Science Museum, the Type Museum closed indefinitely for lack of funds, the British Library printing gallery closed and its wooden 'common press' relegated to a corner outside the lavatories, and the display at St Bride not open to the public on a regular basis. The Science Museum in particular has no excuse, as it has huge amounts of under-utilised space. It's a great shame that museums seem to have abdicated any reponsibility they may once have felt to cherish our material culture (i.e. things and stuff) and to display and interpret them for the present and future generations. They seem to believe more in empty spaces (remind you of art galleries? Think Tate Modern's Turbine Hall as the classic example), which can be used for outside events and corporate entertaining. If the stuff isn't there on display, it can't feed and stimulate young imaginations. I remember when the Science and other museums were 'mathom houses' chock-full of magical things, and the wonderful effect this had on me and on others. Now they only show a tithe of their original displays. Philistines indeed! Trahaison des clercs.

Happy Birthday to Tom Paine, and other letterpress work

2011-01-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

Today's window display is an assemblage of wood-letter blocks: TOM HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Tom Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk, on 29 January 1737.

Alaso shown are various letterpress Valentine cards, and an 'OFF WITH THEIR HEADS' print - not merely a topical allusion but a quotation from the mouth of Lewis Carroll's Red Queen in Alice.

Here's some quick info about where I'm showing my work (Altazimuth Press, poetic photobooks, and Tom Paine Printing Press, creative letterpress) this year (2011; accurate dates to follow):

2011

Works on Paper Fair, Science Museum, South Kensington, London, 2-7 Feb 2011

Here Gallery, Bristol, March 2011

Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE), April/May 2011

Artwave, Lewes, August-September 2011

Whitechapel Art Book Fair, September 2011

Oxford Fine Press Book Fair, November 2011

2012

Phoenix Brighton Open Studios: May 2012

Off With Their Heads - Peter Chasseaud's new typographical print

2010-12-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

With thanks to Lewis Carroll, who featured this phrase in Alice in Wonderland (the Queen of Hearts ordering the decapitation of the three gardeners).

Dada Christmas - Do You Dada?

2010-12-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

A couple of examples of recent things I've printed from wood blocks on the Albion handpress at The Tom Paine Printing Press, using Khadi hand-made paper.

EAST LONDON LINE & THE WHITECHAPEL

2010-09-03T13:12:00.001-07:00

Here is a limited edition typographical print which I've been producing to launch my new poetic photobook The East London Line at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair (Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th September). The large-format softback book, under my imprint Altazimuth Press, will be in a limited edition of 100.

I've been producing the print on my wooden 'common press', a replica of an 18th century press, and as the press is a two-pull press, and therefore has a small platen, I have to pull and wind-on two or three times to obtain one print.

The print is composed in metal type and wood letter on the stone bed of the press. I will have some for sale at the Whitechapel, along with the book, and also a few of my limited edition typographical map, printed in black, red and blue, also entitled the East London Line (see an earlier post).

New Letterpress Work in July

2010-08-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of a couple of new things I've produced on the hand press during July

East London Line typographic / cartographic print

2010-06-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is a proof of my new East London Line typographic / cartographic limited edition print. I set the type on Friday and Saturday, and proofed it on Sunday. It's also a typographic experiment towards my East London Line book, which I will launch at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair in September.

This print celebrates the reopening of the East London Line (which has now been subsumed into the 'Overground' system), but is also intended to preserve the memory of the old East London Line, as well as the London, Surrey, West Indai, East India and other Docks and the working class communities of the areas covered. Action by government, local authorities and developers (nowadays called 'regeneration') has, since the war, erased whole areas of the old London. They have done more damage than Hitler's bombs.

Rights of Man, Billy Budd and an 1843 Albion press

2010-05-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

I've printed a new typographical poster 'Rights o' Man' (Budd's merchant ship, named after Tom Paine's 1791-2 seminal work) before he was pressed into HMS Indomitable (a name which did not appear in Herman Melville's original story). to mark the terrific new production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne. I printed this poster before I attended the dress rehearsal, and, even so, wouldn't want to change it much. But my posters have a habit of transmuting within short periods of time! So within an edition of, say, 50 posters there could actually be several different printing states. The one shown above does not have the red stars by Captain Vere's name ('Starry Vere') which appear in a slightly later state.

I've just taken delivery of a small 1843 Albion press (see photo above), constructed in the sixth year of Queen Victoria's reign, which I will be able to use for printing broadsides, woodblocks and other relief work. I haven't measured the platen yet, but it can print foolscap (bigger than A4). This is now installed on a stout table in the Press at 151 High Street, Lewes, along with the big common press (which, of course, sits on the floor).

Just got back from Toronto, where I visited the very friendly and interesting Coach House Press (two Heidelbergs), and also Don Black's amazing letterpress warehouse. There's an interesting exhibition relating to the Coach House Press and its work since 1970 in the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto. This is a wonderful gallery and, quite apart from lots of great art (including Rembrandt etchings at present), there's a fine collection of model ships in the basement. If you're interested in naval architecture (Billly Budd, Wooden Walls, Hearts of Oak, etc.) this is well worth a long look.

OLYMPIA & THE WHITECHAPEL: New Letterpress Poster: WRITERS & POETS

2010-05-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is my new 'writers and poets' letterpress poster, printed in a similar way to the previous two ('political philosphers' and 'artists') using a combination of wood letter and metal type.

I shall be showing all these posters, and more, at the Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia (London) in June, at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair in September, and the fine press fair at St Bride Printing Library in (I think) November this year.

'ARTISTS' typographical poster

2010-05-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here is an image of my new 'Artists' typographical poster, similar in style to the 'Political Philosophers' poster I printed recently (see previous post). This is the second in this series of limited edition posters.

Political Philosophers Poster

2010-05-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

This is a proof of a new 'Political Philosophers' poster I've been printing yesterday and today on the common press. The type ranges from 36 point metal type (smallest) up to 38 Line Pica (over 6 inches) wood letter (largest). There is a free poster prize for identifying the (Russian?) philosopher Yelnatsniw!

In the production copies, Wollstonecraft has two 'L's, and there a few other changes. Hegel appears, inverted above Marx (any guesses why?). Hobbes has disappeared, and Lilburne has been added. I would have added more and more names, but ran out of space. I could fit more in (Plato, Aristotle, de Beauvoir . . . ) but would have to use smaller and smaller type, which defeats the object. Less is more?

I hope to produce more posters in this series - Artist, Poets, Printers, etc.

Pages Exhibition - Gutenberg to Ernst and more

2010-04-19T09:46:00.001-07:00

For our next exhibition we have lots of interesting pages from books from the 15th century to contemporary Artists Books; - a facsimile page from the Gutenberg 1455 Bible (signed by Stephen Fry – made for his TV program about the Gutenberg press made by Alan May – the same person who made our Common Press), -one from the Nuremberg Chronicle (genuine 1493);some from various productions by the St Dominic's Press, at Ditchling,; surrealist pages from Une Semaine de Bonte by Max Ernst, which was sponsored by Roland Penrose who lived near Lewes in Chiddingly; various title pages from the 16th to the 19th century, and examples from contemporary Artists Books, including some Trant/Chasseaud golden oldies; some are typographical examples, some have images:any of them could be a talking point framed on the wall.

We can assure everyone no books were harmed in the making of this event!

The exhibition runs from April 27th until May 29th, closed Sundays and Mondays; at the same time we will have our usual changing selection of books, prints, cards, posters, magazines and printed ephemera.

Caslon Type Crisis, and some Black Letter types

2010-04-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

I decided to set the black letter types held at The Tom Paine Printing Press, as this would help me to read them (particularly the caps) better. The specimen above shows the range from 48 point to 6 point. The first three are very old founders' type from The Caxton Press, and the descriptions I have given are those printed on the old labels on the case.

CASLON OLD FACE SWASH ITALICS & QUAINT CHARACTERS

Help! I heard today from the USA that the new owners of the Dale Guild Type Foundry have decided to close down some or all of their type-casting operations, and have dumped some 1,000 lbs weight of Caslon 14 point Italic Swash and Quaint characters. I'll have to check this information, but I was relying on the Dale Guild to supply The Tom Paine Printing Press with these swash and quaint characters. Does anyone out there in the typosphere know where I can obtain these rare Caslon founts? I'm looking for all sizes from 12 point to 72 point, but particularly 14pt, 18pt and 24pt.

A Page of Typographical Ornaments, etc

2010-04-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

I set and printed this sheet to see what I could do with all my odd letters and ornaments. It's still developing . . . I like experimenting with inking-up individual characters and lines in different colours.

Creative Typography

2010-02-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

See my Peter Chasseaud - Artist & Writer blog (http://peterchasseaud.blogspot.com) for more about these two images of my current work at the Press - a foot-square Valentine, and a version of Moxon's 17th Century capital 'E'.

Typography Books, Artists' Books, Printing, Artists' Prints

2010-02-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

The Tom Paine Printing Press and Press Gallery is now building up a range of new and secondhand books on typography and graphic design, private presses, fine press books, artists' books, and artists' prints as well as letterpress and line-block material printed by Peter Chasseaud on the wooden hand-press (Common Press). I've just printed a valentine card about a foot square, using wood type on Khadi hand-made paper.

We will also be stocking books on printing history, methods and processes - including letterpress, lithography, etching, relief printing, etc.

Press now open at 151 High Street, Lewes

2009-12-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

Exhibition of prints and books by Dmitry Sayenko

Amanda Dean, Mayor of Lewes, opening the Press

Again, what a hectic few weeks it's been! The Tom Paine Printing Press was officially opened in early December in its new premises at 151 High Street, Lewes (opposite the Bull House and Westgate Chapel), by Amanda Dean, the Mayor of Lewes. This is a perfect location, as Tom paine lived and worked in Bull House, and was married to Elizabeth Ollive in the Westgate Chapel, the marriage being legalised at St Michael's Church - only a stone's throw away. So we have three Tom Paine sites close by, and the White Hart, where Paine attended Headstrong Club meetings, just down the High Street. And of course there's also the bowling green at the Castle, where Paine played bowls with William Lee, who printed his pamphlet 'The Case of the Officers of Excise'.

The Printing Press now has a shop and gallery (Press Gallery) on the premises as part of its operations, the idea being that these will generate income to support the press. We are selling a range of, mostly printed, items related to Tom paine, and also small press books, artists' books, and hand-made prints (etchings, woodcuts, collagraphs, linocuts, lithographs), cards, etc.

The first exhibition (see photo at top) was of prints and artist's books by the Russian artist Dmitry Sayenko, from St Petersburg. He produces very powerful woodcut and linocut images, often combining them with typeset text, or with text which he cuts by hand into the block.

Tom Paine Printing Press moves to Lewes High Street

2009-11-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

What a hectic summer it's been! The Tom Paine Festival in July, printing Paine's 'Case of the Officers of Excise' (limted edition of 30 copies) in August, Lewes's Artwave Festival in September and more printing in October (including Paine and Lewes Bonfire broadsides).

The opportunity has come up to move the Tom Paine Printing Press to a shop in Lewes High Street - No.151, opposite the Bull House where Paine used to live and work, and the Westgate Chapel (Unitarian) where he was married. I'm therefore moving the Press from the Market Tower (with grateful thanks to Lewes District Council for providing the space there since the end of June). It will take me several weeks to complete the move, as I have to dismantle the wooden 'common press' very carefully, and re-erect it in the new premises.

The High Street shop will be called 'PRESS', and will also act as a retail outlet for the Press's products, and also for prints and artists' books by local and other artists and printmakers.

I was very fortunate to be given a printer's 'random' or cabinet for typecases, by Graham Moss of the Incline Press, along with some type and other equipment. I also obtained some more type - metal and wooden - from the now-closed Printing House museum in Cockermouth (north end of the Lake District). I'm still very short of the 18th Century 'Caslon Old Face' type, so if anyone out there has any to dispose of . . . ? Or indeed any metal or wooden type.

Artwave, and Paine's Case of the Officers of Excise

2009-08-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

I'm demonstrating the printing press (the wooden common press) in the Market Tower, Lewes, during Lewes's Artwave Festival every afternoon from Friday 28 August to Friday 4 September inclusive.

As well as the Tom paine material, I'm also using the press to print the text and blocks of some of my own artist's poem & image books, including Rosenberg (the Whitechapel poet and artist, who was killed in the First World War), and The East London Line (inspired by the current redevelopment of the old East London Railway from Shoreditch through (or rather under) Whitechapel, Shadwell, Wapping, Rotherhithe and Surrey Docks to New Cross and New Cross Gate).

Peter Chasseaud on the Bowling Green, Lewes Castle, 4 July 2009

2009-07-27T09:12:00.001-07:00

Photos courtesy of Andy Gammon

Thanks to those who posted helpful comments about correcting the colours, and to Andy Gammon who re-sent the images.

Tom Paine and Lewes Festival, 4-14 July 2009

2009-07-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Tom Paine Printing Press during the Thomas Paine and Lewes Festival, July 4th to 14th, 2009

The Festival finished today, so I'm just posting these initial statistics and comments.

The Tom Paine Printing Press was open for the whole 11 days of the Thomas Paine and Lewes Festival.
I demonstrated the press for 7 hours every day, to a total of 1,148 visitors, giving 96 complete demonstrations to individuals and groups.

Average number of visitors: 113 per day.

Average number of complete demonstrations: 9 per day.

Public comment was extremely favourable, and children and young people were particularly impressed.

Older visitors were very interested, and many related the Press to their own lives and memories.

It was particularly rewarding to meet so many retired compositors and printers who had worked at local printing companies - Baxters, Farncombes, Lewes Press, Barbican Press. They thought it wonderful that their own trade was being commemorated in this way.

Many of the visitors were clearly day-trippers and tourists from the UK and abroad (France, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, USA), and thought the Press was a great attraction. These were people who were not necessarily in Lewes for the Tom Paine Festival.

Those who were in Lewes just for the Festival were particularly interested in the Press as representing the key engine for the production of printed material and the dissemination of Paine's ideas (and ideas generally).

Many visitors suggested that the Press could produce printed material appropriate for other Lewes commemorations and events. This is one of the aims of the Press, and I have several plans afoot.

Finally, thanks to Andy Gammon, Peter Flanagan, Les Ellis and others, for their help and support.

Tom Paine Press arrives in Lewes

2009-06-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

Stop Press -

The Tom Paine Printing Press will be brought to Lewes by its builder, Alan May, on Monday 22nd June, and should be fully erected in the Market Tower, and tested, by the following day. It will be open to the public to view, with demonstrations of letterpress printing, during Lewes's Tom Paine Festival, 4th to 14th July. Tom Paine was closely involved with both the American and French Revolutions, hence the dates:
4th July 1776: American Declaration of Independence.
14th July 1789: Bastille Day - the start of the French Revolution.

Nearing the Tom Paine Bicentenary Festival in Lewes

2009-05-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

Tom Paine Bicentenary Festival, Lewes, 4th to 14th July 2009

There've been a lot of delays in moving the Tom Paine Printing Press from Alan May's workshop near Stafford to Lewes. These have been caused by problems with finding suitable vacant premises, but it now looks as though the Market Tower will be available from mid-June, so there should just be time to get the press in there and in working order, with type, paper and ink. Watch this space! I plan to be running a series of letterpress printing workshops, talks and school visits to the press during the Festival.

With all the scandals about Parliament at the moment, Tom Paine's radical views about 'old corruption' are again being aired. I can hear his bones (wherever they are) rattling.

It's interesting that politicians are using the parliamentary expenses scandal to float yet again many constitutional reform projects - and about time too! Many of these, or variants, were proposed over two hundred years ago. We're clearly a Burkean nation, with such a snail's pace rate of reform.

It's also interesting to see the Conservatives, under David Cameron, ahead of the game with firmness of treatment for parliamentary offenders and with constitutional reform proposals.

Now what about the bankers? Everyone's taken their eyes off the ball here! When are we going to have some powerful effective reform of the system of banking regulation, and indeed of corporate governance.

Tom Paine's Birthday; ringing the Lewes town bell

2009-01-30T07:25:00.000-08:00

Tom Paine's birthday was 29th January 1737. This year is the bicentenary of his death (8th June 1809). John Crawford, the chief executive of Lewes District Council, agreed to have the town bell rung on 29th January 2009 to commemorate both Tom Paine's birthday and the bicentenniel year. The Tom Paine and Lewes Festival will take place in the town between 4th and 14th July.

This is probably the first time the bell has been rung for Paine's birthday!

Andy Gammon, watched by Mike Chartier, the Mayor of Lewes, rings Gabriel, the medieval town bell in the Market Tower, Lewes

The Market Tower (dating from the 1790s) during the bell-ringing

Andy Gammon preparing Gabriel to be rung

Phil Abel and Hand & Eye Press

2009-01-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

Last Friday (23rd January) I visited Phil Abel at Hand & Eye Press under an old railway arch at Pincin Street, just north of Cable Street, in London's East End. His Heidelberg letterpress machines are very different from most of the presses featured on this site, although the principle remains the same.

Hand & Eye Press letterpress publicity poster

Phil Abel operating the larger of his two Heidelberg letterpress machines

Tom Paine Press nears completion; Taking Liberties

2008-11-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (28th November 2008) I took the train from Euston to Stafford (along the old LNWR route - see my Euston Arch book) to have another meeting with Alan May and have a look at the 'Tom Paine' common press as it nears completion. The day was cold, damp and raw, but I was warmed up by Staffordshire oatcakes and onion soup thoughtfully provided by Alan's wife Judith. The press was in Alan's garage-workshop, where the 'Gutenberg' one-pull press made by Alan for Stephen Fry's TV programme was constructed. Here are some photos I took of the common press, which is modelled on the so-called Benjamin Franklin press dating from the early 18th century.

Last week I went to see the wonderful exhibition Taking Liberties - The Struggle for Britain's Freedoms and Rights - at the British Library (www.bl.uk/takingliberties). This is on until 1st March 2009, and includes iconic documents from the BL's collections - from Magna Carta, through the Declaration of Right, Colonel Rainborough's Leveller statement during the Putney Debates, Tom Paine's The Rights of Man, May Wolstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, to the Bill of Rights, the Chartists, the Suffragettes to the Human Rights Act.

The exhibition includes a great deal of original printed material - books, documents, posters, etc. - which gives an insight into a wide range of letterpress and relief printing.

Tom Paine Printing Press, progress report July 2008

2008-07-26T02:17:00.000-07:00

Alan May, who is building the press for me, has just sent me this photo of the beautifully engineered nut and pin, crucial components of the mechanism for applying pressure to the platen during the printing process.

Tom Paine Printing Press under construction

2008-06-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Alan May has just sent me this photo of the Common Press (destined for The Tom Paine Printing Press in Lewes) under construction in his workshop. Sitting on it are parts of four miniature presses which he is also constructing. The full-size press will be operational for the Tom Paine bicentenary in July 2009.

Alan May's Gutenberg Press at the British Library

2008-05-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

Alan May, who built the Gutenberg Press, is (in grey shirt) standing by the press. His assistant is showing the audience a printed page which has just been pulled from the press.

Here are some photos taken at the Gutenberg Press event at the British Library on 6th May 2008. They show Alan May himself, with his full-size one-pull Gutenberg Press, and also a miniature (quarter size) two-pull box-hose Common Press. All photos by kind permission of Irene Tepli.

Above: Alan May (left) and Peter Chasseaud (right)

Above: Alan May with his miniature 18th Century Common Press. This is a quarter-size model of the full-size press he is building for The Tom Paine Press.

A page of the Gutenberg Bible printed during the demonstration by Alan May and his assistant.

Peter Chasseaud inspecting a printed page from the Gutenberg Bible (paper and ink still damp).

The type and tympan on the bed of the Gutenberg Press.

Type mould constructed by Alan May. When closed, hot metal (an alloy of lead and antimony) is poured in; this immediately solidifies into a piece of type. Prior to this, the positive of the letter to be cast is sculpted from a steel bar, which is then struck into a bronze matrix to create the negative form of the letter. This matrix is fixed into the mould, the two halves of which are held together with the wire spring-clips shown. Once the matrix has been made, it can be re-used in the mould almost indefinitely, so type can be mass-produced.

Peter Chasseaud (left) with the inking balls (on the ink slab). These are made from leather, horsehair and wood, The ink is picked up off the slab with a circular rolling motion, and applied to the type with a similar motion. To keep the leather soft and supple, it was (in the 18th Century!)steeped in urine.

Type Case, Composing Frame, etc

2008-04-13T09:47:00.001-07:00

The lay of the case: upper case (capital letters) on top, and lower case (minuscules) below.

A 17th century composing frame from Oxford, in the St Bride's Printing Museum and Library

in London.

My first letterpress machine - an Arab platen press

2008-04-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

I acquired this Arab treadle platen press, with 70 cases of type, in about 1988, and set it up in the Star Brewery in Lewes, where I shared a space with four other artists and also did my paintings (see my blog: http://peterchasseaud.blogspot.com). The press and type came originally from the Ditchling Press, and the word was that it had been used by David Jones and Eric Gill.

Tom Paine: The Power of the Printing Press

2008-04-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

Paine and the Power of the Printing Press; Printing in Lewes

The printing press had spread the words of the vernacular bible (Gutenburg’s first printed bible appeared about 1455), and had encouraged a more literal translation and interpretation. Wycliffe and the Lollards had spread their message through the south of England. In 1538 Tyndale’s new translation of the Bible appeared in every church in the country.

William Lee (1713-86), a native of Chichester, published and printed The Lewes Journal from 1745, and was joined for a few years by Verrall. [see Colin Brent's Georgian Lewes, p124. Verrall had been paid by the Borough to print notices during the smallpox outbreak of 1731]. Lee was the founder and printer of Lewes’s weekly newspaper, The Sussex Weekly Advertiser; or, The Lewes Journal, was, with Paine, a member of the political discussion club, now popularly known as the Headstrong Club. Coloured by Whiggery and republicanism, the Journal reprinted the letters of ‘Junius,’ attacking the government. Other articles criticised the British state and its colonial system, ‘Tory tormenters,’ English despotism, the nobility, the gulf between rich and poor, superstition (in the name of ‘liberty of the mind,’ ‘plain truth’ and ‘common sense,’ and praised public virtue.

Lee was a great supporter of Wilkes, whom he viewed as a ‘great patriot.’ In August 1770, Wilkes passed through Lewes, where he was given a hero’s welcome with pealing bells and applauding crowds, and it is possible that Paine met him on this occasion. All raised the cry of ‘Wilkes and Liberty,’ evidence that Wilkes’s appeal to the people and the ‘rights of electors’ met with popular support. By his raising the question of rights, Wilkes had brought into the area of public debate the crucial issues of the basic rights of the people (i.e. the King’s subjects), the relationship between the electorate (at that time only a tiny proportion of the population) and its representatives, and public influence on the structures of government and the constitution.

In 1772 (when Paine was still in Lewes), Lee moved his press to 64 High Street, where his sons William (1747-1830) and Arthur (1759-1824) succeeded him.

Lee remembered Paine as ‘a shrewd and sensible fellow’ who displayed an abnormal ‘depth of political knowledge,’ and eulogised him thus:

Immortal PAINE! While mighty reasoners jar,
We crown thee General of the Headstrong War;
Thy logic vanquish’d error, and thy mind
No bounds, but those of right and truth, confined.
Thy soul of fire must sure ascend the sky,
Immortal PAINE, thy fame can never die;
For men like thee their names must ever save
From the black edicts of the tyrant grave.

Paine was reputed to have ‘perseverance in a good cause and obstinacy in a bad one,’ and perhaps some of his conceit arose from the acclaim he received for his performances at the Headstrong Club. During his time in Lewes he also developed his writing skills, and it is possible that he was the author of several pieces in The Lewes Journal. [Letters about his invention of a fire escape, and about the evil practice of parishes transporting sick paupers from parish to parish until they were deposited in their parish of birth]. Lee carried out a certain amount of printing for Paine, notably the The Case of the Officers of Excise.

Paine was dismissed from the excise office after he published a strong argument in 1772, while living and working in Lewes, for an increase in pay as the only way to end corruption in the service. Excisemen were underpaid and disgruntled, and he had been asked to state their case in a petition to Parliament. They wanted not only more pay and better conditions of work, but the right to organise among themselves and to criticise their employer – the Crown. In the summer of 1772 he wrote several documents in this vein, and in late November or December he went on leave to London. Here he spent three months lobbying MPs and others to further the Excisemen’s cause, using as his headquarters the Excise Coffee House in Broad Street.

With sympathetic colleagues he circulated copies of the single sheet tract, A Letter concerning the Nottingham Officers, and a 21-page pamphlet entitled The Case of the Officers of Excise, 4,000 copies of which were printed at William Lee’s Lewes Journal office. Lee also printed the Letter, a leaflet and a petition. Paine sent a copy of The Case of the Officers of Excise to the playright Oliver Goldsmith, a man of radical leanings, and the two became good friends. Goldsmith had already written a biography of Voltaire, and The Deserted Village, a critique of a society ‘where wealth accumulates and men decay.’ Most of the 3,000 English Excisemen signed the petition, but Parliament rejected it outright. When he returned to Lewes in April [?] 1773, he found that he had lost his job.

MORE TO FOLLOW

The Headstrong Club, Lewes, East Sussex, UK

2008-04-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

At present I'm reseaching the history of The Headstrong Club in Lewes over the past 22 years. It was founded in 1987, the 250th anniversary ofPaine's birth, by David Powell and John May following the publication of David's book about Tom Paine: The Greatest Exile (Croom Helm, 1985). My intention is to produce a pamphlet on the Headstrong Club as soon as The Tom Paine Printing Press becomes operational in 2009.

More to follow.

British Library Gutenberg Press event, May 2008

2008-04-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

An event at the British Library in May 2008 that might be of interest (the Gutenberg press was the forerunner of the Common Press):

The Machine That Made Us
Gutenberg's Brilliant Invention
Tuesday 6 May 2008

Johann Gutenberg's printing press, which brought about the dawn of mass communication is of barely equalled significance in the development of human culture. His achievement reached its pinnacle with the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455.

A new documentary The Machine That Made Us, presented by Stephen Fry, is screened on BBC4 in Spring 2008, and excerpts will feature in tonights event. For the programme, and in order to unravel mysteries of Gutenberg's technique, a team of experts built a unique copy of his press: watch it action at the event, alongside discussion of the remarkable story behind its invention.

Speakers include Alan May (printing expert and press builder),
Martin Andrews (University of Reading)
and Patrick McGrady (Wavelength Films).
Event time: 18.30 – 20.00
Location: Conference Centre, British Library
Price: £6 (concessions £4)
See British Library Events website

Peter Chasseaud sets up The Tom Paine Printing Press in Lewes

2008-04-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

Introduction by Peter Chasseaud (see also my blog http://peterchasseaud.blogspot.com/):

After many years' planning and preparation, I'm setting up a full-size 18th Century style wooden Common Press (similar to the one shown above) in Lewes, Sussex (home of the Lewes Arms pub, Harvey's beer, the Headstrong Club and many other good things). The press should be up and running by early 2009, and be printing away producing material for the bicentenary of Paine's death in that year, when a big commemorative festival will be held (4th to 14th July) in the town of Lewes.

THE TOM PAINE PRINTING PRESS is my project to set up a working press, as used to print Paine’s massively influential pamphlets and books - Common Sense, The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, etc. Erected in the environment of an 18th century print room in Lewes, together with type cases, cabinets, frames and the compositor’s ‘stone’, this will be a working press available to contemporary artists and writers to print their own work. It will be capable of woodblock, lino and other relief printing, and of printing letterpress items.

It will provide an excellent educational resource and tourist attraction for Lewes. Posters, broadsheets, pamphlets and books will be printed on the press, which will also be used to instruct students of all ages in the complexities of letterpress technology and the crucial importance of the printed word in disseminating ideas.

I practise as an artist, writer, printmaker and producer of artists’ books (see link to my blog). I've also been a member of the Headstrong Club for 21 years (it was founded in 1987 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Paine's birth in 1737), latterly a committee member, and was a founder member of the Tom Paine Project, for which I curated four simultaneous exhibitions in Lewes and an American Revolutionary War re-enactment at Firle Place, in the year 2000.

Education modules to be offered by The Tom Paine Printing Press:

Practical Printing (hands-on typesetting and printing of a broadsheet and pamphlet
Printing History
Paper & Bookbinding
History of the Book
Rationalism & the Enlightenment
Printing in Lewes (history)

Contact details:
Peter Chasseaud (Tom Paine Printing Press)

Studio 3S3

Phoenix Arts Association

10-14 Waterloo Place

Brighton

BN2 9NB, UK