THE OLD SCHOOL PRESS

Recorded voices from the world of printing:

Mark Arman, Workshop Press

  
 
 
 
Mark Arman ran his Workshop Press in Thaxted into the mid-1990s. In his later years his sight failed and he was forced to give up printing, but with great courage he turned to technology to fill the gap. He made great use of a Mac with various added facilities to make the best use of his remaining sight and enjoyed using technology to his advantage - we think we would have been amused by the idea of making his voice available to the world via the internet.

Mark died at the age of 93 in 2006 leaving, in particular, a legacy of delightful books printed and bound by hand.

Our thanks go to his daughter, Jennie Parry, for permission to include these recordings in our archive. 

 
 
 
1997 Mark and the neo-Nazis.
When Mark gave up the Workshop Press, I was fortunate enough to be able to acquire some of his type. This included three cases of Trump Deutsch in 13pt, 17pt, and 36pt (Didot equivalents), a traditional German typeface designed by Georg Trump in 1935 for the H Berthold AG type foundry. Mark told me the extraordinary story of how it found its way to him and I asked him if he would let me have the story to print, and he sent me a tape in April 1997. In his accompanying note he wrote 'It is not very good I am afraid. The slowness & long pauses are due to the fact that I had to shuttle between Dictaphone, Tape Recorder and my Aladdin Reader!' - the story remains intriguing. (I later printed it as a type specimen entitled 'Mark Arman and the neo-Nazis'.)		  
Part 1. (13:01)
Part 2. (12:34)
 
 
c. 1990 Printing on the Farley 11 proof press and on dampened paper.
There is no date on this tape but from its sound and the fact that it refers to a press superseded in Pages of Type by the model 24, we might guess it was made around 1990.		  
Part 1. (14:27)
Part 2. (13:00)
 
 
c. 1995 Readings from Pages of Type.
In 1990 Mark published an edition of 175 copies of Pages of Type, which he dedicated to 'all those who collect things from the past, so that something of the past is preserved for the future', a sentiment we follow in presenting these recordings he made in which he reads the text of his book. It was subtitled 'A story of making, an adventure in printing, a bibliography and an account of the processes involved.' Two parts of the books are relevant still ....		  
Printing with a Farley 24 proof press. (3:32)
Two-colour working on a proof press. (2:43)
 
 
Copyright © Martyn Ould 2007, 2020.