Any ideas on what press this is? Golding, Sigwalt…?

Hi everyone. I’m quite green to the letterpress world, but have thoroughly enjoyed reading the wealth of information that is on Briarpress as a way to start educating myself. I’ve stumbled on a little press and took the leap. I know it’s a tabletop platen press and it appears to be 4x6, but is missing the chase, and needs new springs and rollers. I know it needs some love, but am excited to get my hands dirty figuring the thing out. Any ideas on what exactly it is? It’s not marked in any way I can see…

Thank you in advance for any tips or thoughts.

Elisabeth

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Looks like a Golding Official to me.

Round Base = Golding
Square Base = Sigwalt
Except some early Sigwalts had the round base. I’m sure someone out there can tell us more about that!
Get the measure across the bed between the roller tracks. If it’ 6.5 inches, you’ve lucked out as 3x5 Kelsey roller cores, roller wheels, (trunnions) fit my square base Sigwalt.
I’m sure if you have children, they’ll be glad to share a part of their inheritance now to buy mom a set of rollers!
No kids? Get a reverse mortgage!!
You’ve got a nice find and a great start to a great pastime. Good luck and have fun.

Round Base = Golding
Square Base = Sigwalt
Except some early Sigwalts had the round base. I’m sure someone out there can tell us more about that!
Get the measure across the bed between the roller tracks. If it’ 6.5 inches, you’ve lucked out as 3x5 Kelsey roller cores, roller wheels, (trunnions) fit my square base Sigwalt.
I’m sure if you have children, they’ll be glad to share a part of their inheritance now to buy mom a set of rollers!
No kids? Get a reverse mortgage!!
You’ve got a nice find and a great start to a great pastime. Good luck and have fun.

The Golding Official had those roller hook return springs, I’m pretty sure but some Sigwalts may have also. However, the mounting and adjustment system for the platen looks more like the Sigwalt Nonpareil I have. It’s basically a shallow ball-and-socket with which you can only adjust the tilt of the platen — the pressure adjustment is behind the press on the toggle. Not marked in any way is another clue — Golding was pretty faithful about putting their name on their Officials but as far as I know Sigwalt never did. It’s missing its special Sigwalt roller trucks as well as the chase, but otherwise looks print-ready with a clean-up. You can improvise on the rollers and trucks but the chase is pretty specific to that press.

Bob

If you would like, tell us where you are located, and perhaps one of us could come and look at your press and/or give you an orientation to press operation at our location.

I think the Golding and Sigwalt chases are interchangeable. At least I can use both in my 4x6 Golding Official #2.

Thank you all! When I first saw I thought Sigwalt because all the Goldings I’ve seen are pretty clearly marked. But the base is round, but as Stanislaus Pekala said, early Sigwalts did have round bases. I plan on trying to scrub off some grime tomorrow and am hoping that might give some new clues.

The bed does measure 6.5 across, I just double checked. I’m located in Connecticut and yes, I do have kids. Did the background on image 3 give it away?

I’ll update if I manage to figure anything out. Thanks again!

Hi all,

Not to sound like a know it all, but, this is a late model Golding Official No. 2. If this does not say Official on the side of the casting it will be the first not to say so that I know of, but, given the time period this particular press was manufactured it may not have a name so shouldn’t be used for the deciding factor. American Type Founders purchased Golding near the end and may have produced some presses without the Golding name on it. I know this to be very late Golding manufacture because the ink disk support arm is a separate piece bolted to the main casting. This was only done by Golding, and very late toward the end of its production run in the Franklin, Ma. location. Here is some other supporting visual evidence: Yes, it has a round base and as the other posters already pointed out Sigwalt Nonpareil’s also have a round base. The difference is that Golding’s round base is thinner than the Sigwalt’s by quite a lot. The springs are of Golding design. While we have found Goldings with similar springs to Sigwalt’s, we don’t see Sigwalt’s with Golding springs for obvious reasons. Sigwalt used ordinary, easy to source compression springs while Golding used a custom design. If springs are lost, it is likely they will be replaced with the common compression type. These springs mount on the hooks differently as well. ( holes for Golding springs vs grooved ring and circlip for Sigwalt) These hooks have holes. Like the base, the ink disk on a Golding is also visibly thinner than a Sigwalt. The operating handle where it mounts to the press is also quite different on these two similar presses. The Golding being simpler in design and as seen in the pictures. Although not evident in these pictures, Golding put serial numbers on the top center of the bed that allows dating. Sigwalt did not ever use serial numbers to my knowledge. And also not evidence for this press, but, of interest is that the two companies used chase mounting systems that although similar, do differ. The evidence is on the chase rather than the press. Both use a wedge holding principal that allows the chase to be placed with either side of the chase up with no clamp needed. The wedges on the chase are on two separate projections on the Golding chase, and one on the Sigwalt. Some interchangeability is possible, but, it positions the chase at slightly different heights if swapped between manufacturers. Well…I even bored myself enough for one post, so, I’ll end it here.

JF (Golding-guy)

PS I added “to my knowledge” on Sigwalt serial numbers as it seems it may be up for debate as discussed below.

sorry John, i fell asleep half way thru reading your post, could you please retype the last half of the post for me.

John, I’m curious about your statement that Sigwalt never put a serial number on their presses. My 6x9 press, which I have been calling a Sigwalt Nonpareil, has the number 1 stamped into the top center of the bed, right where Golding put their numbers. Also, this press seems (third photo) to have the same sort of “shallow ball-and-socket” support for the platen as my Nonpareil — was that a feature of the Golding also, or am I mis-reading it?

Bob

Hi Bob,

The serial number issue seems to be up for discussion still. Butch Baranowski has provided some interesting information that sheds new light.(to me anyway) To your point, I have also seen single or double digit numbers on Sigwalt’s (and Golding’s for that matter) that I don’t believe are serial numbers. They certainly are not on the Golding’s because there is also always a different and typically larger number where we expect to find the serial number on the bed. We know from records Steve Saxe keeps that Golding made presses in batches. I think it reasonably safe to think others did it as well as it makes good sense from a production standpoint. Many parts were custom fit when assembling these batches of presses. It is my contention that the single and double digit numbers are to temporarily keep track of what parts were fit to what presses during assembly. A means of keeping things straight if you will. I have seen these numbers on platens, beds, back of bales, ink disks, and other parts as well. That said, Butch has provided a clear picture of a Sigwalt Ideal with the number 554 on the platen under the front tympan bale. That seems to me to be a serial number as it is unlikely that they needed to use 3 digit numbers to keep presses straight during assembly. Does anyone else have a Sigwalt Ideal they can look under the front bale and find a number?

Golding does have what I would call a shallow ball and socket between the platen and rocker on early Officials. It changed sometime during the manufacturing years to two flat surfaces.

Stay tuned on the serial number question as we hear from others that hopefully can give us a definitive answer,

JF Golding-guy

Loving all the debates. I’ve attached a picture with what I think (based on John’s F’s guidance) is the serial number that is on the bed of the press.

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