The Museum's artefact collection includes hundreds of thousands of engravings, typesettings, stereotypes, rubber stamps, negatives, offset plates and related items.

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Two blocks (illustrations): At the top, a CUB photoengraving. Below, a Christmas ornament which is typecast meaning cast, like a piece of type, from a typefoundry matrix (and hence mass produced).

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION The intaglio process A hand-engraved copper plate. These are used for fine stationery.

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF THESE TWO PICTURES The photoengraving process Photoengraving (halftone) from an architect's sketch.

ENLARGEMENT: WTIH PREVIOUS PICTURE The same image, negatived and flipped, to visualise the picture as printed.

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Why do we read letterpress type upside-down? Photoengraving (from photoset text): an invitation (of a kind).

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Photoengraving (Line art). Cartoon by Tandberg. Ivory towers.

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Help needed to classify artefacts: Volunteering, anyone? Photoengraving (complex line and tones): front cover of "Overland".

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Photoengraving: oval open shapes, tint blocks, six-up,

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Two-colour sets of line blocks.

NO ENLARGEMENT AT PRESENT THE LIQUOR INDUSTRY is well represented in the Museum's archives

NO ENLARGEMENT AT PRESENT Two line blocks relating to the motor industry

NO ENLARGEMENT AT PRESENT Clothing industry: knitwear company logo

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Making photopolymer plates: their transitional role Photopolymer plate (business form): cheaper method of engraving.

ENLARGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Learn to use real type in our Access Studio Hand cut from linoleum (a lino-cut).

Some of these examples are safely in the Museum's venue. They are fascinating and tell wonderful stories, but the venue can hold less than 5% of the Museum's world-unique collection. It is a matter of some grief that the rest, including the world's only large collection of typesetting machinery and the only collection of its kind of printing artefacts, are not being protected by the authorities or industry and are in danger of being scrapped.

THE 95% THAT'S IN STORAGE AND IN JEOPARDY . . .
ENLARGEMENT? SEE JUNE PICTORIAL (DOWNLOADS)	<< View over some 20% of the Museum's collection of artefacts, boxed and palletted in the store, including many like those above. The artefact collection, if it survives the present crisis, will allow researchers a detailed view of what was being printed mid to late 20th century, and how it was printed.
	ENLARGEMENT? SEE JUNE PICTORIAL (DOWNLOADS) Some of our thousands of stereotype matrices, from which stereotype plates were cast. Stereos (and electrotypes) were a way of making multiple copies of the same printing type or block.