Letterpress Posters
We had a visit from Rob, retired letterpress printer of Star Press in Coedpoeth, North Wales.
Rob often calls in for a cuppa and a chat about ‘the old days’. When Rob retired and closed Star Press we managed to save and re-home some of the items and use them in our print rooms. Our large stone (metal), type drawers, various print room essentials and trays of wood type from Star Press have been given new life in our print rooms.
As well as Heidelberg and Thompson platen presses for general print jobs he had a Wharfedale and a much larger Miehle printing press for printing posters.
As the Miehle was capable of taking large sheets printers across Wales and over the Shropshire borders would farm out poster printing to Star Press. Everything from auctions and livestock sales to golf tournaments and Donkey Derby’s. He would even print the printer’s name and details at the bottom of the posters rather than Star Press.
Whenever Rob calls in he brings along items of interest and today he arrived with a handful of letterpress posters he had printed in the 1980s as a trade poster printer. All handset wood and metal type printed on 90gsm poster paper. It would take Rob 2-3 hours to set up and print a single-colour poster. But washing up on the Miehle would take another hour so he would keep black ink on press and use the smaller Wharfedale for any second colours. Back then he would typically charge £30 for 50 posters.
It’s always a pleasure talking with Rob. Listening to him reminisce about his days in Star Press, starting at just 15 years old, working on various printing presses and Linotypes.
It’s fascinating watching him explain how he had set out the type on these posters, talking measures in em’s and en’s, hand kerning wood type and bringing up a sort. Truly an art.
Some of the lines would be reused from standing type stored on trays. The two images above show and example, “LIVE & DEAD FARMING STOCK”. This line would already be set and tied with printers string ready to pull out on the next job saving time and money.
