Geoff Moor
Vintage Services
Roleystone, Western Australia
(that's on the west side of the biggest island that's
in between South America
and South Africa)
[Written: April 2006]
How I Got Involved in Letterpress Printing: When I was 11 years (way back in 1956)
old a friend got an Adana press which kindled my interest in printing. My Dad made me a small hinged press and I gleaned type and
blocks from business houses to play at printing. My John Bull rubber stamp outfit and a collection of rubber stamps are still around
somewhere in the shed.
In 1979 a young chap that had belonged to a youth club I conducted back when a YMCA youth worker, contacted
me as he'd bought out a back-yard printer to set up on his own. The gear he acquired included an Arab handfed, treadle platen press
(in pieces) and I bought it from him together with five founts of type (one of which was in a saucepan - I quickly learnt the lay
of a case) I put the press together (it was disassembled) and printed off a few sticky labels for my daughter's school books.
My father
was still alive then and could remember using a press like this back around 1916 as a youth and he had a go as well. There is a bit
of printers ink in the family as I had an uncle who was a compositor and linotype operator. My brother at one stage worked for a firm
in Victoria, Australia setting out advertisements in metal before he went into the advertising industry and became a high flyer (literally
as he was the advertising executive for a major airline).
Fortunately a friend is factory manager for a large jobbing printing company
and is a comp by trade. I've learned a lot from him over the years.
Presses & Equipment: Operable: Two foolscap folio Arab
presses (c1880s), a Model No 3, a Golding Official No 4 (1892), a Poco proof press, a Farley proof press; a Haddon proof press (heavy
roller type); Gem No 1 guillotine (made by Thompson, Manchester); 1 Ludlow; Douglas saw, Rouse powered mitre cutter; Rosback style
treadle pin perforator; numerous racks of Ludlow mats; too many cases of handset type; Virco heat machine; and a huge (read as bloody
heavy) pin perforator that has been converted to cut out jigsaw puzzles (was originally used to perforate stamps) and a small but
growing collection of Hemphill style wedge quoins.
Awaiting rollers or other bits: a Golding Pearl No 1 5x8(1905); an Improved
Pearl; an Adana 5x8; an Adana H/S2; Adana TP/48 (electric); Excelsior 5x8; 2 more Ludlows (Model M); Hot foil press (well it works
- sort of)
Work History - as it relates to letterpress printing: I'm a hobby printer - self (with help from others) taught. Bureaucrat
by day job, stirrer by inclination
Education: Had some once. Left school just before 15th Birthday; went back later and picked
up a degree somewhere and also did some museum studies and other things.
Other Interests/Hobbies: Vintage motoring in my 1928
Dodge (and in my wife's 1973 Mercedes 450SL when I'm allowed to touch it) and running classic car events/rallies/displays; collecting
Western Australian commercial history and ephemera; collecting old bottles and artifacts; conducting collectors fairs; trying not
to be a pompous ass; trying to play the pipe organ; having fun with the English language etc etc etc. Other interests include my wife
and three off-spring.
Group Memberships, if any: British Printing Society (# 10377); life membership of Veteran Car Club
of W.A.; of the Canning Agricultural, Horticultural and Recreational Society Inc (trying saying all that quickly); of the Colonial
Bottle & Collectors Club; Paul Harris fellow - Rotary International from two Rotary Clubs; Fellow Parks & Leisure Australia;
various collectors clubs; classifications committee National Trust of Australia (W.A.)
