Hand Printed on 270gsm recycled card stock, Vansons Rubber ink,

210x297mm- A4 Print (sold unframed)

Hand Printed on an Albion Hand Press dating from 1860-80’s (TBC). The press was recovered from a school in Ilford.

With the exception of the title text (wooden Play Bill or thereabouts), the rest of the type is exclusively metal and is as closer representation I can manage to the original with the type found at Hooksmith Press. A typo has even been left uncorrected can you spot it?

Very small type indirectly purchased from the now defunct Curwen Press in Plaistow features also. What is fun too, is that the original was printed in West Ham, so a real East London affair.

In 1871 things were getting pretty dire in Epping Forest as some of the larger unscrupulous local land owners helped themselves to additional parcels of common land within the forest and which did not belong to them. These grabs, were known as enclosures, often with timber palisade fencing. Public outcry was such that over 30 000 East Londoners are alleged to have attended the demonstration advertised on this hand bill. Thankfully The Corporation of London, who were fairly recent land owners in this neck of the woods (with their purchase of a Cemetery at Ilford) and with commoner’s rights themselves, stepped in with the legal challenge and associated costs, and are largely to thank for the fact we have Epping Forest for all to enjoy today.

A lovely video from local Joel Somerfield (Order Studio) shows the iron press in action.