Palace of the Governors Cincinnati Type Founders Stansbury Press
 
This gracile Cincinnati Type Founders iron hand press was last in the commercial shop of the Webb-Linn Press in Chicago ca. 1930, at that time it was either sold or given to a private party.  The press then moved to New Mexico with a subsequent owner and now has been donated to the Palace of the Governors museum in Santa Fe, N.M. where it is on display in the Palace Print Shop. 

The press lacks a forestay, anyone who knows of a similar press, or images of a similar press with a forestay please email Tom Leech, Curator of the Press at the Palace of the Governors.  The museum is trying to replicate a forestay in order to get the press back into operational condition.

The general and platen size of 19 x 14 puts it in the range of what James Moran mentions although without illustration in Printing Presses. 

"A smaller, all-iron Stansbury, was offered in the 1856 catalogue with a platen size of 14x18 inches.  This seems to indicate that by that date the torsion toggle was considered suitable for small, cheap presses only.  Larger-sized presses advertised were of the Washington type."  (Moran, James pg. 85)

 

 

The casting of the press bears the "Cincinnati Type "Founders" name in the headstock, and below is a small brass plate with the "Illinois Type Founding Co. Chicago"  Image to the left.

Below right, close-up of three rod Stansbury toggle mechanism along the tradition of the early wood and iron Stansbury presses built by the CTF. 

Close-up of base of toggle, the lower right whole has been filled with lead(?).  A second hole is filled on the opposite side of the toggle base.  Was this a mistake at the machine shop where the press was made, or filled in a print shop along the career of the press to indicate that the wholes were not to be used?