The Worldwide hand press database is now online!
Have you ever wanted to find a museum with a collection of hand presses to visit? Or get in touch with someone who has the same hand press as you have in your museum, collection or workshop in order to exchange information? Are you studying pre- or early-industrial printing techniques? Or are you simply curious about the extraordinary variety of hand operated printing presses that have been used over the centuries? If so, the Worldwide hand press database is for you!
Compiled over a period of twenty-odd years by the printing technology historian Bob Oldham, it brings together information on the location and characteristics of over 2,200 currently existing hand presses with the aim of facilitating historical research, assisting press owners in the restoration of their presses, and helping researchers locate examples of early presses for study.
The Worldwide hand press database is exactly that: an index of hand presses preserved or in use in the four corners of the globe, from Buenos Aires to Brisbane, from Mainz to Milwaukee, from Tokyo to Treviso. Machines of all shapes and sizes—from table top to outsize, from Acorns through Albions, Columbians, Dinglers, Hagars, Imperials, Stanhopes to Washingtons, produced by a bewildering variety of manufacturers. They are all in there.
The database can be searched by press type, model, manufacturer, impression mechanism, museum, city or country. Or even by all at once if you are really picky!
In other words, a database to be used without moderation…