The press in Blackwell Hall, the public entrance foyer of the Bodleian’s Weston Library, is a replica made in 1951 by A.H. Smith, Quain Professor of English at UCL, with A. Brown, from designs published in 1683 by Joseph Moxon in Mechanick Exercises, or, The doctrine of handy-works, applied to the art of printing.*
It is currently being used by a team of volunteers, who will be at press most Saturdays this summer, to enable visitors to try their hand at printing keepsakes
Saturday 13 June, 2-4 pm
Saturday 20 June, 2-4 pm
Saturday 27 June, 2-4 pm
Saturday 4 July, (Alice’s Day), 11-4
Saturday 11 July, 2-4 pm
Saturday 18 July, 2-4 pm
Saturday 25 July, 2-4 pm
Saturday 1 August, 11 am -1 pm
Saturday 8 August, 2-4 pm
Saturday 29 August, 2-4 pm
* See Frans A. Janssen, ‘Reconstructions of the common press: aims and results’, Quærendo 32/3-4 (2002), for a photo of the press at UCL and a discussion of the design and use of this and other replicas.