“The Craftsmen Machinery Company of Boston, Massachusetts, manufactured several tabletop lever presses and at least one floor-model platen jobber. One press in their tabletop line, the Superior, is almost identical to the C&P Pilot except that its chase width is 6 1/2″” instead of 6″”. The C.M.C. Jobber, Craftsmen’s floor model press, is similar to Golding’s 7×11″” Pearl Improved. Other Craftsmen tabletop presses and their chase dimensions as shown in a 1964 catalog:
Victory, 4 1/2 x 6 3/8″” (shown)
Imperial, 5×8″”
Superior, 6 1/2 x 10″”
Monarch, 9×12″” “
Another in the line of Kelsey presses, though this one is called a Victor. The only side-lever press made by Kelsey, it was also made with a 5″x8″ chase. William A. Kelsey began making inexpensive presses for amateurs in 1872. His Excelsior became the longest-lasting press on the market. For more information on Kelsey presses, see the Excelsior 3×5 page.
This press has the name Victor cast into the under side of the platen, and may be related to the Victor 1×2.
J. Cook & Company manufactured a small jobbing press known as the Victor in the 1880s, but the Victor pictured may well have been made by a different company. All we know of this rail press with the name “Victor” cast into its frame is that the chase size is 1 1/2″ x 2 3/4″, just big enough for a small business card.
The SP15, notable for its lightweight design, is a member of the “Simple Precision” series. It was specifically designed to print repro proofs from metal type forms on specially formulated paper, which were then used to make photo-litho plates for offset printing. It was also used for laboratory testing of ink and paper. Unlike earlier Vandercook models, the impression cylinder is automatically in print mode when at the feed board, thus there is no movement of the eccentric during the forward carriage travel unless it is manually shifted into trip mode. The SP15 features the “quick change” rollers introduced with the Universal series. The gripper bar (simpler and lighter than earlier models) is the same style found on later Universals. Power ink distribution and an automatic wash up unit was standard, but a non-motorized variant, with a hand wheel mounted on the front form roller, was also available. Maximum form: 14¾ × 20″; maximum sheet: 14 × 18″. Nearly 350 SP15 presses are listed in the Vandercook census. See also SP20 and SP25.
The No. 4 features a complex spring-loaded gear and clutch mechanism on the ends of both roller cores. With only minor modifications (models before 1938 did not have pedal activated grippers), the No. 4 was in production for 25 years. The 4T is differentiated by the addition of a transparency adapter, mounted above the inking assembly, used to eliminate wrinkling of cellophane and glassine proofs. These proofs could then be contacted to film for offset negatives. Most transparency assemblies have been discarded. For modern practice, it is more important to know that the 4T has a deeper cylinder undercut (.070″). Traveling sheet delivery tray is standard. Maximum form: 14 × 18″; maximum sheet: 14 ¾ × 20″. There are more than 300 No. 4 and 4T presses listed in the Vandercook census. The nearly identical 215 has a different cabinet and a wood feed board with two swing-out paper shelves (like the 219 New Style and 219 Old Style). The Vandercook census shows a dozen of this variant.
Uncle Sam’s inventor and manufacturer was William C. Evans of Philadelphia, advertising his various presses in Harper’s and Leslie’s in the late 1870s. (Evans was a man of many occupations; at various times he also sold real estate and pianos.) He patented the press movement in 1875, and started advertising the Uncle Sam in 1876 in 3 sizes: No. 1, nominally 1-1/4×2-3/4; No 2, 3-1/4×5-1/4 (also called 3-1/2×6); and in 1878 another No.2 of 5×8. They were either hand- or self-inking presses. The Uncle Sam No.2, above, with the unusual chase size of 4 1/2″ by 7 3/8″, has a patent date cast into its side that reads November 2, 1875.
The Uncle Sam press was invented in the late 1870s by William C. Evans of Philadelphia. (For more information, see the larger Uncle Sam.) The double-lever Uncle Sam pictured is strikingly similar to its larger counterpart, the Uncle Sam with 4 1/2″ x 7 3/8″ chase; aside from its size, the smaller Card press most noticeably differs in the curves of its lever arms. Into both of these arms is cast the patent date, November 2, 1875. Cast below the lever arms on both sides is the name “Uncle Sam Card Press,” and cast into each shoulder of the bed is the following: “W.C. Evans Inventor M’F’R Phila. Pa.”
William Kelsey became famous for his Excelsior line of amateur presses (see the Excelsior 3×5 for more about Kelsey), but the Kelsey Company did manufacture a few jobbing presses like the Star, which was in fact invented by George W. Prouty in 1870 (see also the Prouty Press). The Kelsey Company acquired the rights to the Star, advertising it with the slogan, “Runs like lightning.” The illustration above is from a 1913 Kelsey Company Catalog, where the Star was advertised for $60.
The Stansbury press was patented April 7, 1821, by the Reverend Abraham Ogier Stansbury (1776-1829). Born in Philadelphia in 1776, Stansbury was, according to S.O. Saxe, “at various times, a bookseller and publisher, grocer, one of the first superintendents of a school for the deaf in the United States, the first person to make a lithograph in New York, ordained minister, and inventor.” By 1822, Stansbury had given the Cincinnati Type Foundry (see also their Smith [Cincinnati] press) the rights to manufacture his press, which the Foundry first made in all-wood and hybrid wood-and-iron models before it ultimately built the press with an entirely cast-iron frame. There are five known surviving Stansbury presses, not counting those later made by Isaac Adams, a press inventor in Boston; and by R. Hoe & Company, which bought the Adams firm and continued to manufacture the press until 1885. The press employs a toggle mechanism that differed from those of the Columbian, Ruthven, and Wells presses that had preceeded it. Known as the torsion toggle, it consisted of straight, inclined rods that would in operation force the platen downward to make the impression. This press was most likely made by Isaac Adams because it has no markings. Hoe generally cast their name clearly in the rails of their presses. Phil Weimerskirch, philipwh&lori.state.ri.us: “Stansbury was a publisher and bookseller in New York from about 1798 until 1804. I don’t know where Steve got the information that Stansbury was a grocer. He didn’t get it from me. Stansbury was the first superintendent of the first American school for the deaf, the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Hartford. He was there for just one year, 1817-1818. Then he became the superintendent of the New York Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, and he remained until 1821. In May, 1821, he went to Russia, and while he was abroad, Elihu White sold Stansbury presses in New York for a commission of $10 each. White had a type foundry in New York, and in 1817 he established a branch of his firm in Cincinnati that he called the Cincinnati Type Foundry. I am writing an article on Stansbury for ‘Printing History,’ and I have been doing research on him for many years.”
