visualchemist

Yay! My vintage Dick Blick Master Printer Sign Press has arrived, traveling by train across the US with the help of Amy S. from Madison, WI. Not only did I acquire my third press for the studio, but I also made a new friend in the process.

I’ve heard horror stories of people shipping antique presses across the country only to open up a box of scrap metal and “Master P” almost made that casualty list. So, exactly what happens when you ship 66.3 lbs. of solid metal across the US? You cross your fingers and hope it makes it in one piece. Not the case here.

Unfortunately, this old man arrived in more pieces than I would have liked. Master P still functions like he should, so I’m still a happy camper and I will have the pleasure of printing up broadsides/large format pieces for years to come.

The poor guy, though. Somewhere across the country, this press took some hard hits. I’d turn the knob and could hear all his crunchy bits, so with the help of my better half, we (or should I say he), Ed, managed to disassemble the press and we assessed the damage: (1) Friction seems to be the only thing holding up the back end cap piece. (2) The gripper finger lever got tweaked and now leans to the left. (3) The part that sustained the most damage was the height adjustment dial.

The dial had been knocked so hard it cracked and sat cockeyed against the face plate, literally hanging by a “thread.” (Hardy har har) The dial, minus the silver knob, will still spin, but only without the banged up face plates installed. Rest in pieces, you cool irreplaceable priceless retro face plates. It was nice knowing you.

Finding vintage wood type for sale is like looking for the latest iPhone on the first day of release. There just isn’t enough to go around, everyone wants their hands on it, and if you see it on eBay, good luck to you and your wallet!

I was fortunate enough to stumble on some rather inexpensive SignPress wood type. And while I opened up the window to let in some fresh warm air, Brad J. of Mukwonago, WI., was out dropping my package off at the post office in -12 degrees and was bracing for an evening with a -40 degree windchill. I had never heard of Mukwonago until this point, and now, whenever I look at a map or hear “Wisconsin,” I can think of Brad and Linda, and the awesome wood type they’ve passed along to me. I can assure them that these vintage wood letters are going to enjoy the rest of their days in this beautiful Southern California climate.

As I organized the box of 200+ jumbled characters into my empty type case (drawer), I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was only missing a capital A and an M. Altogether, I acquired a set of (font unknown at this point) san serif capitals, lowercase, numbers, punctuation, and a script lowercase set of Murray Hill. Not a bad purchase at all. I also discovered a little scribble on one of the cent symbols that says “Jeff Gibson sucks.” I don’t know who Jeff is, but whoever he is, someone obviously thinks he isn’t worth a cent, and it will forever remain on this tiny piece of letterpress history. Priceless.

On New Year’s Day, I was online when I stumbled onto a listing for letterpress type… free to a good home. Free? I’ll take it! I’ll give it a good home! Promise.

My current letterpress type collection was modest, at best, and I actually was in the market for more clunky obsolete letterpress stuff. The problem was that the free type was way over there, and I was way over here. So now what?

Luckily, my SIL, Angie, is a Bay Area photographer and was already planning a trip into the city. I asked if she could do me the hugest favor of picking up the case full of lead type and a couple emails and a few days later, I became the proud new owner of 18pt Cooper, 24pt Cooper, 36pt Gothic, and a vintage type case (sight unseen, up to this point). Yahoo! BTW, Amanda G., thank you so much!

I couldn’t wait to see what the freebies looked like. The suspense was killing me, so Angie was kind enough to take a few photos. Eventually these heavy lo-tech lo-fi blocks of coolness will make their journey to Southern California, (via those handy USPS flatrate boxes), but until then, I’ll just stare at these photos all day.

Photos: Angelica Realce

I opened up a chocolate covered fortune cookie I received over the holidays…

Looks like 2009 is going to be a great year! I’m excited about the adventures that lie ahead for both visualchemist and letterpress junkie. Happy New Year to all!