Saturday, February 11, 2012

Some idle time on the interweb

I recently spent a bit of time wandering aimlessly on the interweb, just following links to see where they'd take me. The web is really amazing - we sometimes take for granted how lucky we are to have it at our disposal.

A printer's invoice from 1936 showed up for sale on eBay:W.E. Baxter was a printshop located in Lewes, Sussex, England - the town where I lived when I was a little boy.

The invoice is made out to a Miss. Bradley and a bit more searching on the internet turned up this photograph of the young lady:
It appears the Baxters had ink in their veins. George Baxter (born July 31, 1804, Lewes, Sussex - died Jan. 11, 1867, Sydenham, Kent) was an engraver and printer who invented a process (patented 1835) of color printing that made reproductions of paintings available on a mass scale. He was the son of John Baxter (1781–1858), printer and publisher at Lewes, who issued the popular illustrated “Baxter” Bible.
The building in Lewes where they did their work is identified by this beautiful sign painted directly on the building wall:
And for those of us not fortunate enough to be able to visit the building in person, Google's Streetview provides a lovely vantage point with the W.E. Baxter building on the right center of the view:
Today the W.E. Baxter building houses rental accommodation rather than printing presses. The commercial print operation of W.E. Baxter moved from Lewes to a property in South London in 2002 but continued to experience losses. It was moved again in May 2004 to the nearby premises of Pegasus Colourprint where, as far as I can determine, it remains today.

1 comment:

  1. Internet is surely one of the most precious gifts.
    As you have got some thing very informative about our history of printing press.

    ReplyDelete