Lithographic hand press, miniature
date: label: Date made
content: ca. 1850
label: date made
content: ca 1850
name: label: maker
content: Warner, Benjamin J.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This miniature lithographic hand press was made by Benjamin J. Warner, about 1850. It includes a lithographic stone to scale, and a print from the stone. The press is made of wood, steel, brass, and ivory, and is mounted on a wooden plinth on a circular wooden base. It has a height of 5 inches, a width of 3.75 inches and a length of 4 inches. The stone measures 1.5 inches by 1.25 inches.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Benjamin Warner, the London watchmaker who made this press, also made two miniature steam engines that he exhibited at the 1853 Crystal Palace exposition in New York. Warner’s delicate lithographic press is of a top-lever style known in England around 1840. The scraper was forced down by an eccentric wheel on the lower end of the lever. The sides of the model are moulded brass, the handles and wheels are of turned ivory, and the bed is black velvet. The scraper is suspended by rubber bands, not original and now dried out. The stone, which is too thick to fit under the scraper, carries the image of a prancing horse. The press has been enthroned by a later owner on the circular wooden base of a nineteenth century glass display dome, and the glass itself is now missing. The dome base is nailed onto a three-footed, veneered, circular block.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The family of Mrs. Jones, the donor, descends from Benjamin Warner. In 1976 Mrs. Jones also gave Warner’s two miniature steam engines to the Museum’s Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Donated by Mrs. Ellen R. Jones, 1976.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Communications
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content: Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ellen R. Jones
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.24170
label: accession number
content: 319964
label: catalog number
content: 24170
objectType: label: Object Name
content: press, printing
label: Other Terms
content: hand press; press, printing; printing; lithographic; flatbed scraper
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: limestone (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 3 3/4 in x 4 in; 12.7 cm x 9.525 cm x 10.16 cm