While King Charles and Queen Camilla may have been preoccupied with other important things, the Penrith Museum of Print had its own 'royal visitor' last Sunday - the Mayor of Penrith, Cr. Todd Carney!
(L-R) James Cryer, Cr Todd Carney, Mayor of Penrith and Bob Lockley, PMOP president. The Mayor is seen holding the book, The Romance of Letterpress, presented to the Mayor to mark the occasion of his visit.
On Sunday 20th October, 2024 the Penrith Museum of Printing (PMOP) was delighted to welcome Penrith's Mayor, Cr Todd Carney, to the Rare Books event, held in the recently refurbished Museum at Penrith, NSW.
This event is an important milestone in the Museum's ongoing program to reach out to a wider community. It is a joint venture between the PMOP and the NSW State Library, arising out of a discussion some years ago between industry recruiter James Cryer ( a volunteer with the Museum), and Sarah Moreley, senior curator at the State Library. Both saw the potential for cooperation between a print museum and a library - both of which have a vested interest in storing and preserving precious books.
This event follows the inaugural Rare Books get-together, held last year at the PMOP in November, so last week's event marks the
One of the rare books on display was this 1902 vol. of Encyclopaedia Britanica - the final entry being about our Federation of 1901 second in what hopefully will become an annual tradition. Last year's inaugural event - attended by members of the State Library saw WFOL publisher Andy McCourt deliver a fascinating talk on Shakespeare's First Folio followed by a luncheon. This year the Museum was honoured to receive a the Mayor of Penrith, Cr Todd Carney, as its special guest.
The keynote address was given by the Museums' president, Bob Lockley, ably assisted by vice-president, John Berry. The topic was the fascinating story of the boxwood engravers, a group of hand-engravers who rose to fame briefly during the mid-19th century and then vanished by the early 20th century as the photo-mechanical process replaced the need for hand-engraved images.
After the talk, guests were treated to a fascinating display of 'the power of the press' as various letterpress machines were fired-up for action and roared into life, much to the amazement and delight of the guests - with various PMOP committee members on hand to answer questions.
The battery of presses and typesetting now at PMOP includes:
- A Wharfedale: the flagship of the fleet, original press used by the then Nepean Times to print the newspaper for the Hawkesbury area back in the 1870s,
- A ''Common Press'': a hand-made replica of Gutenberg's original 'wine-press', lovingly hand-built by a craftsman on the NSW south coast,
- A Columbian lever press: extremely rare 1800s, beautifully-restored and painted in red, gold and black it printed the Carcoar Chronicle many years ago,
- A pre-war Heidelberg 'Zylinder': the subject of an amazing rescue last year from it's home in Dorrigo, where it had printed the Dorrigo Gazette - Australia's last Letterpress-printed newspaper.
- Several Linotype & Intertype typesetting machines invented and improved upon from the 1880s. Such typesetting truly revolutionised printing but, like the boxwood engravers, hand-compositors were put out of work.
- An assortment of smaller jobbing presses (treadle-operated ones ably demonstrated by various nimble-footed volunteers)
Guests were then invited to inspect what was in some ways the highlight of the day - dozens of rare and unusual books on display for guests to marvel at. These historic items included not just books but also included old maps, richly-embellished family bibles, rare limited-editions of prints of birds, and other 18th and 19th century memorabilia.
Also on display were several examples of the engravers' art - actual blocks made out of the boxwood (buxus) tree whose wood was so fine-grained it was almost like steel.
For those who are interested in print history, boxwood-engraved illustrations were extensively used in the London Illustrated News - but also in what was Australia's greatest publishing adventure: The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia - it's worth googling!
The Penrith Museum of Print hosts regular tours and workshops - why not organise a group?
https://www.printingmuseum.org.au/
With thanks to James Cryer of JDA Printrecruit
