07 Dec




















Blond & Co. was composed of my father, Robert, and his brother Abram. My father came to America in 1856, leaving his brother Abram in charge of the business. The actual printing of the " oil prints," as they were designated by us, was carried on in the workshops at No. 4 Walbrook, a small street Licensee and other Printers 103 leading out of Budge Row and coming out on Cheapside, by the Mansion House. This work was all done on hand presses; in fact, outside of the newspaper and large book offices, there were no power presses then. We had over twenty hand presses at Walbrook, and at Budge Row half a dozen lithograph presses and as many copperplate presses. I pulled a hand press in the room just outside of the one where the oil prints were printed. I was then fourteen years old. As a rule, the other employees were not allowed in there, and of course, strangers visiting any workshop in the old country was, and is, entirely out of the question. According to my recollection, these prints were first engraved on a steel plate, a key -plate, or, as I should call, a master-plate. From trans- fers from this the different colour-blocks were engraved mostly on box- wood, some on copper. In printing, each form contained two blocks, each of a different colour, two colours being used at a time on the ink table. The roller had about two inches cut out of the centre, so that the colours would not mix. When the top sheet on the tympan was printed, it was taken off the points and put on the lower set of points and a new sheet put on above. At times, the pressman touched up a certain part that needed it, with a little pad of composition carrying a different tint to what was on the roller. This, as you may imagine, was slow work; I should say that nine hundred a day was the maximum; there were almost invariably

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