Below is our 1863 Albion Press Our newest machines (2009) are a full colour, high speed digital press and a 5 colour (including white) Direct to Garment press. Craft and technology in harmony.

View from Happisburgh Lighthouse c/o www.povich.co.uk

Mark & Graham Pressman The Bungalow Cart Gap Road Happisburgh Norfolk NR12 0QL Telephone 01692 582 292 Mobile:- 07990 731 058 email graham.pressman at catseyepress.co.uk We want to help you. Please phone!

Original Catseye Private Press printer, A. A. Slaney worked out of Meadow Studios in Hertfordshire, where a number of artists had set up from the 1880's as part of the Sir Hubert von Herrkomer Art School, from the time that he inherited everything at Number Two, Meadow Studios from. artist Frank Goulding, in 1962. By that time he had been printing, using his Imperial Iron Hand Press for quite some years, following de-mob from National Service. We still have this press, dated 1858, to this day and it is a regular work-horse in our arsenal of ancient and modern equipment. It was not until 1966 that Graham first began to learn his trade as a printer under Mr. Slaney, at the tender age of 12 years. At the time, Catseye Private Press commonly employed a Columbian iron hand press (which went, eventually, to an enthusiast in The Americas), a Golding Jobber treadle platen, and an electric Victoria parallel approach platen, for it's day to day work, printing from lead type, wood and linoleum blocks, which were engraved or cut by hand, as appropriate. Also available was a Lithographic press, which was used to print from a flat sandstone, upon which aquaphobic images had been drawn by hand.

Having achieved a first grade, Credit, qualification in Bookcraft, aged 16, Graham served as apprentice, first in the composing department, then the press room at Musgrove & Sons Ltd. of Pinner Green, over a five year period, during which time he also studied at Watford Colledge of Technology and Art, where he qualified to City & Guilds Advanced 'Credit' Standard as a Letterpress and Photogravure Printer, Graham then served two further years as an "improver". By that time he was aged 23 years and was soon to establish himself as a master printer, in his own right and in partnership with Tony Slaney in Catseye Private Press.

A. A. Slaney never did retire from Catseye Private Press, and died in hospital in June 2004 aged 84, following a successful routine operation. It was then that Graham took up the reigns of the press, after 36 years of close and continuous association from student to associate printer. At that time, Graham had one Albion iron hand press (built 1863 and acquired from Stevenson Blake in the early 70's), an Imperial iron hand press (built 1858) and a Cropper platen as well as fully operational composing and finishing departments. In all those years, Catseye Private Press had always been a private press and Graham began to work commercially under the name Catseye Press out of respect for his old teacher. More recently, Graham has retired and prints for his own pleasure.

On the 6th of July 2009, Irene Barker, who was life-partner to Anthony A. Slaney and a brilliant artist in her own right, died of heart troubles. Tony and Irene were a wonderful team and she, as was Tony, will be much missed.

Mark and Graham Pressman continue Catseye Prviate Press, more or less as a hobby now. Graham likes to think of himself as retired and Mark has a job at The Hill House pub in Happisburgh, our local village. That will not prevent them from doing the odd bit of printing though! They just love it! If you want something out of the ordinary, just pick up the phone and ask. You may well get an enthusiastic "yes please" for your trouble. Catseye Private Press does also have a range of stock items, on the market. Books (about and shirts depicting Ferguson tractors,for the tractor enthusiast), Special cardboard boxes, intended to increase recycling habits of the public and special Tyvek wristbands for events. The can all, also, be printed with your images, designs or copy. The principles of Catseye Private Press love nothing more than finding a way to get a new author published. We can help with every detail, right down to the ISBN.

On Thursday 17th December 2009, a Miehle V45 vertical press was delivered from America to Catseye Press. This press was built somewhere between 1936 and 1940 in America. Identical presses were built in the UK, but the demand for them still runs so hard to this day, due to the fact that their design is unsurpassed, that Graham could not find one, for sale at a sensible price, in England. The letterpress side of Catseye Private Press finally representation from the early to mid 20th century. This Miehle is certainly a wonderful, if vintage, machine, which prints to a very high standard, with little effort and none of the heaving on a wooded hand-lever.

Around 1972/3 Graham expressed the opinion that the Zerox machine recently acquired by Watford Technical College to demostrate the principles of electrosatic printing would be the future of the printing indistry in England. The whole class bust out laughing. Catseye Private Press's modern digital presses have proven Graham right. This is especially the case when and where they are used in conjuction with the old equipment; but none of that detracts from the true wonder and versatility of the old letterpress craft. For those who can afford it (even at cost), it is still the best. What Graham likes best is to combine to ancient with the modern, to achieve the best results most efficiently.

Mark and Graham don't have print to make a living these days, but have a wonderful time printing on all manner of things with all manner of images using a variety of skills, equipments and technologies. They think of it as a grand old time and a wonderful hooby.

Mark &/or Graham also have the skills to print using Silk Screen Printing, lithography (although we do have a stone, we don't have a press, so this is a high-skill, low-output process for us), colotype (same applies as to litho. Glass egg and sun, but no press), vinyl cutting for signwriting, wide format (up to 2 feet) and other processes.

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