Tom Paine Printing Press under construction

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

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

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

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.

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