Some of you are probably aware that recently I relocated to Los Angeles to take an internship with an unabashedly secretive film production company and being such the quirky company they are there’s a lot of vintage items, equipment, movie props, etc. Basically, if you’ve got a soul you could get lost in the amazingness of some of the stuff they’ve kept around.

One of the more striking items is the Chandler & Price New Style Letterpress dating from the early 1900’s on which the serials have been partially scrubbed which makes finding an exact year somewhat difficult. The press is entirely functional and is used frequently to print thank you cards, invitations, and stationary. I’ll be learning how to use this thing over the next few weeks so I’m pretty excited to report back on how that ends up. Click below to see the rest of the photographs and an abbreviated history of the letterpress manufacturer.

Chandler & Price emerged in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 1800s and became one of the foremost manufacturers for letterpresses in the world. As their popularity grew, they changed their format to the “New Style” press which basically became the standard for such work globally. They became defunct in the mid 20th century and to tell you the truth, that’s about the extent of the history I could find on them. I know that I have some letterpress-buff readers that know quite a bit more than I do so it would be swell if you could drop some more info in the comments. For now, enjoy the photos taken with the iPhone 4.