Baby, it’s cold outside! and inside the Print Shop, which has no insulation or heat, it can be just as cold or colder! So we’re taking the winter off, heading for shops with heat for the months of January and February. The HSCV Library is open as usual, but the Museum is closed as well. We’ll be re-opening with our usual Saturday morning hours come March.
I’ll continue to post items on the webpage as we continue our work on behalf of Conestoga Press from warmer spaces.
This year for the first time we submitted a page for the APHA Chesapeake collaborative calendar. You can buy it here and support a great group… and get a calendar like no other! You can also view each month here.
The choice of the pig and the poem is based in a local Pennsylvania German tradition of eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s day for good luck. Printer Madelyn M. did some research on the tradition and found a few theories supporting it. There are logistical reasons why we eat sauerkraut this time of year. The Autumn is peak harvest time for cabbage when the cabbage would be chopped and put in barrels to begin the fermentation process. Usually by New Year’s Day, fresh produce is scant, so these fermentation barrels are tapped. Underlying health benefits of eating kraut may also contributes to this tradition, as historically, fermented foods were a big source of vitamin C and nutrients when fresh produce wasn’t available.
Legend also says that pork is enjoyed because pigs look forward when they root for food, rather than chicken and turkeys which scratch backward, just as the Germans were looking ahead to the New Year. They also wished each other as many riches as there are shreds of cabbage in the sauerkraut they eat. I’m a bit skeptical of these last interpretations having lived in the area all my life and not heard of them until more recent publications on Pennsylvania German food. I must say though, that even though I’m not a big fan I have my pork and sauerkraut every New Year’s Day (I can smell it cooking as I post this). There was one year I remember my family missing it when I was younger. The reason I remember that it wasn’t eaten that year is because everything bad that happened to anyone in the family that year was blamed on not having eaten pork and sauerkraut on new years.
Colophon:
We chose January to use a great cut of a pig from our collection. It is in copper from the Johnson Type Foundry, Phila. (1843 – 1860). The short poem I wrote is in 18 point Caslon (of some type or another). The month and days of the week are in 48 and 36 point Dynamo respectively, designed by Hermann Ihlenburg for MacKellar, Smiths, and Jordan in 1891. The dates were my first attempt at casting on the Ludlow at .918 Club in Lancaster with much assistance. The ConestogaPress.org at the bottom is in 18 point Recherche also of MacKellar, Smiths, and Jordan from the 1800’s.
For the fourth Christmas celebration in a row at the HSCV Museum we produced a two-color coaster. We printed around 150 of these for visitors as they waited. While they waited, Jeff printed the red on the C&P and then Madelyn or I printed the green. Those attending were very interested in the process.
In 1976 the Historical Society expressed an interest in having a float in the Ephrata Fair Parade for the country’s Bicentennial. The Junior Historians did much of the work, putting the Bronstrup iron press on a farm wagon and decorating it. The feature, of course, was getting Harry Stauffer to ride on it. As an extra bonus we won an award for the effort.
We have some bits and pieces of this font in two point sizes (18 point proof below) and hopefully will find the rest at some point in our collection. Sample above is from the MacKellar, Smiths, and Jordan 1891 Specimen Book (p. 279). It was patented October 20, 1885 and designed by Herman Ihlenburg. According to Type Heritage Chapel discussions it was revived digitally as Cullane Roman (2017).
We had a case of type long identified as MacKellar, Smiths, and Jordan, which was, of course the foundry, not the font. After finding an 1891 Specimen book on the Internet Archive, we were able to identify it as Recherche, which interestingly enough means “rare, exotic, or obscure” or by another source “studied refinement or elegance”. Either way a fitting name.
The name is used much later for a script family that is nothing like the original. This one was, according to Fonts In Use, designed by Julius Herriet Sr. likely in the 1850’s for the Johnson type foundry which operated until 1867 under the names Johnson & Smith and then L. Johnson & Co. It was reorganized by employees Thomas MacKellar, John and Richard Smith, and Peter Jordan. [Annenberg, Type Foundries of America, 1974]
We have a fairly generous 2/3 size case of 18 point in good condition.
On Saturday, June 11 the Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association (of which Conestoga Press is a member) was hosted by us for a field trip. We began with a special visit to the Ephrata Cloister, enjoyed a lunch outside the Conestoga Press Print Shop, and then toured the printing exhibits at the museum, a special display of Harry Staffer prints, and printed a souvenir on the Bronstrup iron press as shown in the following pictures.
Just added a link to Typographia: or the Printer’s Instructor by Thomas Adams. Free and online.
You can read and/or download it here or check it out along with others on our Resources page which is regularly updated with such links as the materials become known to us.
Two of us in the shop own these little proof presses that are easily assembled from laser cut pieces. There are even plans on the site to cut your own if you desire, or you can watch for presses to drop and snatch one up when they become available which is announced on a regular basis.
Some photos from the installation of our “new” old 8″ x 12″ Chandler & Price made in 1926. Added to Conestoga Press in 2009(?). [Photos by Dick Wanner]
