arob
Jr. Member
What if I show'd you this picture? Does that help?
Baltimore #9 is a rail press, or a lever press. It was a way business people could make business cards, or 'personal greeting cards' without using a more costly professional print shop. The relic is on display in a label printing company head office up here in Toronto and I wrote about it on Dumpdiggers as Baltimore #9 printer, 1880s custom printing in the USA. These were common pieces of 'office equipment' at the turn of the 20th century, esp for salesmen and shipping and receiving depts making stock labels etc
The collector Bob Pontarollo, CEO Lorpon Labels reads the faint impression created by the type on the card - the last impressions the machine made ..
it was a woman's name
Sadly for Bob he missed the mark when he bought the rig six years ago for a couple hundred bucks - its still only worth a couple hundred bucks today, and will never be super collectible. That's because the relic doesn't have the correct pedigree - it's not a 'Baltimorean' lever press made by J.F.W. Dorman, its only a 'Baltimore' made by Baumgartner which are more common copies of the former.
Alas how could Bob have known? They're hard items to catalog, and only a very experienced collector with a discerning eye can spot the differences,
Today we have digital printers and laser photo copiers and so I think its real cool when business people put obsolete industrial relics from the past on display in their offices. It puts the items back to work again.
Baltimore #9 is a rail press, or a lever press. It was a way business people could make business cards, or 'personal greeting cards' without using a more costly professional print shop. The relic is on display in a label printing company head office up here in Toronto and I wrote about it on Dumpdiggers as Baltimore #9 printer, 1880s custom printing in the USA. These were common pieces of 'office equipment' at the turn of the 20th century, esp for salesmen and shipping and receiving depts making stock labels etc
The collector Bob Pontarollo, CEO Lorpon Labels reads the faint impression created by the type on the card - the last impressions the machine made ..
it was a woman's name
Sadly for Bob he missed the mark when he bought the rig six years ago for a couple hundred bucks - its still only worth a couple hundred bucks today, and will never be super collectible. That's because the relic doesn't have the correct pedigree - it's not a 'Baltimorean' lever press made by J.F.W. Dorman, its only a 'Baltimore' made by Baumgartner which are more common copies of the former.
Alas how could Bob have known? They're hard items to catalog, and only a very experienced collector with a discerning eye can spot the differences,
Today we have digital printers and laser photo copiers and so I think its real cool when business people put obsolete industrial relics from the past on display in their offices. It puts the items back to work again.
