The Vortex Press

The Vortex Press is based at Hook, in Hampshire, United Kingdom. It’s a letterpress outfit - that is to say, it uses the same technology that Gutenberg used to print his bibles in the early 15th century. Our main printing press is quite an antique (though not quite as early as Gutenberg’s). It is a Furnival Express, which was built in Reddish, Manchester, in the late nineteenth century. The Furnival company was a large iron-smelting concern that specialised in building printing presses, though they also diversified in many other areas as long as it involved cast iron. The Express is variously described as a jobbing press, a jobbing platen, or a clam-shell press. The latter term relates to the movement of the platens, which meet like a closing clam. There were many clam-shell designs from around 1870 onwards, the most successful being the Joshua Wade product known as the Arab. The Furnival Express is very much like the Arab design, having the same inner chase dimensions of 13 by 9 inches, and a very similar layout. Some would say it was an Arab clone. This was understandable, as the Arab was the top-selling, best quality press in its class.

This class of press was also called a foolscap folio press, a reference to the paper size that would usually be used to print on (which was 13 x 8 inches). It is, of course, a letterpress machine, which can supply a good impression in more ways than one..

It is numbered No 366. Furnivals are very rare (unlike the Arab presses!), and may be one of only two working examples in the UK. One was at Castle Cary (which then went to Camberley, but has since been sold – with some parts missing) and another is at work in Brighton. Let me know if you know of these, or others.

My press was purchased in 2008 from a working press - the Lyme Bay Press in Bridport.  The Lyme Bay Press has many letterpress goodies for sale and is recommended!

The Name

The Vortex Press is the second name choice. Originally I had chosen to call it the Vorticist Press. As you already know, a Vorticist was a member of the Vorticist art group of 1914 - who wanted to replace the pedestrian tastes of the British public to a startling geometric abstractionism - but the First World War got in the way. But some of their art survives (for example at the Tate Modern, London). And to celebrate the Vorticists and all they achieved, I wanted to name my press after them. However, after having to (1) spell the name and (2) explain what a Vorticist was for the hundredth time, I decided on a name-change… to the Vortex Press. It encapsulates a key symbol of the Vorticists, (and what they were named after) - the vortex. The idea is that whilst the whole world flies past at the periphery in a huge whirlpool of activity, a Vorticist, seated at the still centre of the storm, can get on with changing the world!