Ancient Printing Press – Jerusalem, the Beginning of the 20th Century – Belongs in a Museum

Ancient Printing Press – Jerusalem, the Beginning of the 20th Century – Belongs in a Museum
A. A printing press for printing posters, newspapers and various leaves, with the printing table. Arad printing press, Jerusalem, Jaffa Street, Phone 014. Circa 1925. Includes the rare wooden printing blocks, copper printing block, printing letters and more.
A printing press that was operated by rolling a rolling pin on the paper that was placed on the colored letters.

The machine and its operation
A printing press for printing posters, newspapers and various leaves.
A massive metal surface with a heavy metal wheel that goes over the letters with a sheet of paper. The desirable letters or engraving is arranged on the surface in tracks that can be tuned to the right size. The paper is attached to the cloth-wrapped wheel. Then, ink is spread on the letters and by pushing the heavy wheel, the paper goes over the colored letters and they are printed onto it.
The metal machine is placed on a wooden table, the desk of the typesetter. The table has large drawers that contain the printing letters and the blocks.
The table is made of massive wood, colored green. There is place for nine drawers, five of them exist.

The letters, printing blocks and engravings
The drawers contain metal printing blocks of Hebrew letters of various sizes and printing blocks of digits.
There are also templates and printing blocks of rare wooden, copper and sheet-metal engravings. The engravings are classic Jerusalem ones.

Height of table: 99 cm. Length: 84 cm. Width: 48 cm.
Maximum height including the printing press: 123 cm. the length of the printing press itself: 73 cm.
Condition: the table and the printing press are well preserved. The cloth that is attached to the printing wheel has slight flaws and partial omissions.

B. Original works of the Zincography factory of the Wallersteiner family
The Zincography factory of the Wallersteiner family operated in Tel Aviv for many years. The factory produced copper and wooden engravings for posters and illustrated books.
A Zincography machine is a machine that engraves on copper. After the artist drew a picture, it was copied onto a copper plate. Then it was engraved by means of the Zincography machine. The wooden engravings were engraved by a sculpting tool.

Before us are two metal printing blocks glued onto wood from which posters for hanging in the Sukkah were printed. The posters contain various illustrations related to Sukkot: Sukkah, the four species, holy sites of Jerusalem and more. An inscription: "Baruch Atah Be'Tzetecha". The size of the engravings: 30.5x21.5 cm.
An additional template of a wooden engraving was made in honor of the engraver David Wallersteiner. It shows a Jews studying Torah in light of a candle. Illustrations of a synagogue, the Western Wall and ancient houses. Hebrew inscription: "For the 80th birthday David Ben Avraham, Jerusalem Elul 5694 [1934]". 19x20 cm. Added is an original leaf with a printing of the above engraving. The leaf is in good condition. Tears.
Before us is also the printing block of a copper engraving of a rabbi blowing the Shofar, wrapped in a Talit. Inscription: "Le'Shana Tova Tichatevu, Rosh Ha'Shana 5692 [1932]". And inscriptions on both sides. The copper engraving was made by Yosef Wallersteiner. 14.5x18 cm.
In addition, a typesetting a chess game: a printing block arranged by small "stones" like printing letters, yet instead of the letters, before us are the metal stones of the chess board and pawns. Everything ready for printing the chess board!
Additional printing blocks of various sizes, among them an engraving of Maimonides, a printing block of the signature and stamp of Rabbi Eliyahu Romm and Rabbi David Shperber, three engravings of holy sites of Jerusalem and more.
All the engravings were made at the same time and served the printing house.

C. A heavy marble stone for printing.
Lithograph plate. The printing was done as follows: the artist drew the picture on the marble, which was then waxed. The picture and script were sculptured into the wax. Then, paint was spread on the wax and a cloth was pressed onto it. The picture was then printed on the cloth.
Each plate was designated for one picture. The lithograph plate before us was for printing cloth covers for the Passover Seder Plate at the beginning of the 20th century.
Added is one of the original cloths printed by the lithograph plate! The signs of the Seder are printed in color on the cloth and the inscription: "Shivat Yamim Tochal Matzot"