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

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).

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.

Tom Paine's Birthday; ringing the Lewes town bell

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

Tom Paine Press nears completion; Taking Liberties

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.

The Headstrong Club, Lewes, East Sussex, UK

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.

Peter Chasseaud sets up The Tom Paine Printing Press in Lewes

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