THE EXCELSIOR PRESS MUSEUM PRINT SHOP AND
RESTORATION FACILITY
Prop Rentals
for
Print Shop Scenes
working equipment
available from the Museum
Collection
of the
Excelsior Press
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If you want
period accurate printing presses & misc
print shop equipment for your movie, tv show
or stage play, contact us. We can supply you
with real, working print shop equipment to
give your production historical accuracy. We
know the history and can guide you to
present realism in your production.
Shows we have supplied scenes or props for:
- 1985 - You Can't Take it With You -
oft-produced play by Kaufman & Hart
- 2008 (?) British tv came to film a
scene for Jack the Ripper in America
- 2008 - Emerson's video biography
for RWE.org
- 2009 - White
Collar - for USA Networks
- 2011 - Newsies
the Musical - Paper Mill
Playhouse, then Broadway
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We
also have our own Youtube
Channel, filled with short videos on how
to use this equipment
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Why
to use us:
First of all, I like - and
collect - old printing presses - and have
studied letterpress printing since 1962. I
have been in many old letterpress shops -
even found an old newspaper out in PA that
was being used to print a newspaper and was run by a
waterwheel. And, while taking a
break from war, I also found a press in
Saigon, Vietnam that was being hand-fed to
print a weekly newspaper.
I began
printing when I was 12 (in 1962) and had the
benefit of knowing and visiting and
occassionally working for quite a few old
printers during the 1960's. I would visit
printers in the nearest citys to my home -
Summit & Plainfield, NJ.
In 1963, I began to visit Mr. DeCasseres at Decasseres Printing
in Plainfield. He would come to his shop in the
morning dressed like an executive going to his
office. Quite the gentleman. When he began work,
he would replace his suit jacket with a
printer's shop apron and print in broad view of
anyone walking past his shop. He was the
best-dressed printer I ever knew. I just wish
I'd taken photos!
And, in the storefront right next to him, was Mr
Libery and Liberty
Printing. Mr. Liberty had come to
America from Romania early in the century. He
came seeking liberty and took that name for
himself - and used it for his one-man printing
business. He's the old printer who taught me
about the "ink candle" which would sit right
beneath the rotating ink disk on his old press
and keep it warm in the winter. I laughed when
he told me the story of printing in the winter
in Romania, but soon found myself using an ink
candle on my own old platen press when I used it
in the at-then-unheated basement addition to my
folks' house.
Oh, there are so many old printers - printers
who were old hands in the 1960's - whose
memories would often go back to the turn of the
century. These men are historical
figures to me today - William C. Soper, Joseph
Ishill, my high-school print shop teacher - Stan
Grossman, John Bergen, Bill Christian. They
taught me a lot.
I ran my own commercial printing shop full time
from 1965-68, then, after a 4-year stint in the
USAF, returned to it again from '72-85.
And I still do run a commercial shop - but now,
it's more of a museum. In any case, I've been at
this a long time and still enjoy working with
old type and presses.
So. My background and interest in and knowledge
of letterpress
printing from 1725-1990 is pretty solid.
If you are working on a scene that takes place
in a small print shop - or has a printing press
somewhere in the scene, We can take care of it -
authentic, period printing presses, cabinets and
other equipment of any year within that range.
We have a barn fulla presses of all sizes,
cabinets, cutters, etc. Even some old Ludlows,
and a Linotype. Plus type cabinets - all sizes
and style from open wooden frames as used in the
1700's through the newest steel "dust-free"
Hamiltons.
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And they are
for rent... as am I, as
your letterpress printing consultant. I
teach actors how to act like printers.
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Please contact Alan Runfeldt with other
questions
contact
page
last updated July, 2019
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