Tom Paine Printing Press

THE TOM PAINE PRINTING PRESS is now at 151 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1XU, UK. It is Peter Chasseaud's project for a working 18th-century ‘common press’ in the environment of an 18th century printing house, with type cases, cabinets, frames and the compositor’s ‘stone’. Posters, broadsheets, pamphlets and books will be printed on the press, which will also be used to show the complexities of letterpress technology and the crucial importance of the printed word in disseminating ideas.

Monday, 15 June 2009

Tom Paine Press arrives in Lewes

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.