St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

On Sunday I had a table at the St Bride Foundation WAYZGOOSE. This is a term (unfamiliar to most people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a printworks and was often an awayday to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm. In this instance the St Bride's Wayzgoose was a kind of letterpress 'bring a buy' sale.

Over twenty different tables displaying and selling everything from lead type to tabletop presses and printed examples of work.

Here is the table that I was allocated, where I adopted a "throw it all on the table" approach! I took lots of offcuts and discontinued paper and board items. All paper, cards and envelopes were sold by weight - 20 pence per 100 grams.




...and I raised £125, donated to the St Bride Foundation.

My neighbours on the table opposite was Caslon. Many readers will be familiar with the typeface, Caslon, first cast by William Caslon in the 16th century. The firm is still run by the Caslon family and there were three generations represented at St Brides on Sunday, pictured below. Today, they supply machinery, inks, powders and the ever popular Adana printing press.

Three generations of the Caslon family. http://www.caslon.co.uk/

My thanks to Mick Clayton for inviting me and to all the staff and friends of St Brides.

 

...and I mustn't forget to thank Zillah Curtis at St Brides, who has recently taken up wood engraving. Zillah created this beautiful commemorative Wayzgoose, goose, which she printed on Shiro Alga Carta and kindly presented it to me on Sunday. Thank you Zillah.

If you missed out this year, make a note in your diary for next May, as it is sure to become an annual event.

http://www.sbf.org.uk/

http://www.caslon.co.uk/html/_adana_letterpress___.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.05.2015