TH Pullan & Sons were an engineering company in Glasgow that specialised in printing machinery and proof presses. They went into liquidation c.1906, so it is difficult finding any actual information about the company or their products.
This press is a wonderful example of industrial revolution engineering. Fully hand crafted and even after years of misuse and neglect, is still completely flat and square.
More of the story is here.
In his paper, “On the fine perception of colours etc.”, William Colenso describes the use of colour by pre-European Māori from his first-hand experience of having met and observed the work of elderly Māori still alive at the time. The legacy he provides offers a rare glimpse into how ancient Māori created and used colour, shape, and texture for various purposes. We have tried to bring to life Colenso’s legacy by applying elements he describes in a contemporary frame; using colours described, creating letterpress printing inks from natural sources to produce prints, making use of printing substrates made from locally produced materials, iconographic representations of the source materials and artefacts produced by those that Colenso worked with.
It is always exciting making something work that was destined for the scrap heap. In this post, we test the now operational Pullan proofing press.
Some time ago, we were contacted about an old etching press that was about to be sent to scrap. It had been in use for many years at the Epsom Teacher’s College in Auckland, New Zealand but had since been moved around and left out in the elements as a piece of “visual art”. Not really knowing if we could use it, we decided to at least grab it before it was smashed up.
