Do you name your printing presses?
Just a question out of curiosity, do you give names to your machines?
I somehow do it to the presses I use most of the time.
My Korrex Hannover is Hanni, and my platen press is named Kobold (ok, it is also the official name of the press, written in golden letters on the platen so not very creative, I know)
But it fits somehow.
Kobold means Gremlin and it is sometimes a little pesky guy, teasing me and stealing my nerves.
I also have a large blue etching press, named Rosinante by the previous owner and the name stuck.
No, no names have been assigned to my presses, but occasionally some do come to mind when they are being stubborn. I won’t share those on this public forum. I suppose if you are prone to name your autos, you’d be of a mind to do so with presses, too.
John Henry
Cedar Creek Press
My first press was an offset web. Built by King press out of Joplin, Mo. I named it Pauli. A play of words from a few directions. Poly = 5. It was a 5 unit press. Pauli after the St. Pauli Girl beer. Someone had painted the press the same blue as the beers label.
Our C & P is named “Maud”after Maud Duncan a local printer and publisher here in the Ozarks. She ran a small two page newspaper that she handset and printed every week.
My American French Tool etching press is named “Christine” after the daughter of the designer and builder Andre Beaudoin of Rhode Island.
Of course “Gill” is my cutter.
I don’t bother, mine are production equipment.
Yes, I have. Years ago when I bought my first Kluge I named it Larry. The following two C&P’s were Moe and Curly. They are still in operation.
I think I will name my cutter Marie as in an Archduchess of Austria
My meihle vertical was called “Milly” by the previous owner, who am I to change it?
I ran an Heidelberg two colour cylinder letterpress flatbed on the bottom and rotary l/press on the the top deck. nick named the cane toad, because it was squat and ugly.
I named my C&P 12x18 Augustine, after the patron saint of printers.
I can’t get any name to stick to my Golding Pearl—we just call her The Pearl.
One of the presses in my college printshop had “RUTHIE” painted on her. Ruthie was a large Universal press that I only fired up once. She was originally from Foster Johnson’s Bayberry Hill Press.
When I got it, I named my Pearl #3 “Minnie” for the longtime star of the Grand Ole Opry, Minnie Pearl. That caused a retrospective christening of my Kelsey 3x5 as “Goliath.”
Unlike Theo, I’m a hobbyist and having a sense of whimsy about my hobby seemed entirely appropriate.