Going All Out To Preserve Some Of World’s Oldest Letterpress Machines

MELAKA (Bernama) – The Royal Press might not ring a bell in the minds of the young generation but the company made a mark in letterpress printing during the 20th century.

Its operations have since been overtaken by modern printing technologies but a number of the letterpress machines it owned, said to be among the oldest in the world, are exhibited at The Royal Press museum.

The only such museum in Malaysia, it is housed at The Royal Press’ original two-storey premises at No. 29, Jalan Hang Jebat (near Jonker Street), here.

Having operated as a polyglot printing house between 1938 and 2010, its possessions – including Romanised Malay and English, Arabic, Chinese and Tamil character blocks as well as various types of letterpress machines that were used during the pre-Merdeka era and are still in good working order – are displayed at the museum.    

Letterpress was among the oldest forms of printing and it involved the use of relief blocks bearing characters, whose surfaces were inked and impressed against sheets or continuous rolls of paper.    

 

The Royal Press was founded by Ee Lay Swee in 1938 after he purchased a printing machine called the Hand-Fed Jobbing Platen Press.

According to The Royal Press museum manager and in-house tour guide Muhammad Al-Amin Mohd Fadeli, records showed that the printing company bought new machines from time to time, with some of them acquired during the 1940s and 1950s.  

“At that time, no other printing company in Melaka had machines like those owned by The Royal Press.

“Given the machines’ meticulous and fast printing techniques, they produced high-quality work and, hence, there was good demand for The Royal Press’ services. Those days, prior to 1957, it cost around one sen to print a newspaper,” he told Bernama.

He said The Royal Press was forced to wind up its operations in 2010 due to various factors including shrinking orders and stiff competition from companies that used modern printing techniques.  

Over the seven decades of its operations, it printed school books, government documents, newspapers, bottle labels, calendars, and bus and cinema tickets using its letterpress machines.

 

Between 2013 and 2015, The Royal Press’ premises served as a living museum, where visitors were shown how the printing processes were carried out. In 2019, it was turned into a museum.

Among the letterpress machines exhibited at the 186 square metre-big museum are a 1956 Glockner-Mercedes model and Linotype Model 78.

“The main one (in use then) was the Linotype Model 78 in which the characters are cast in type metal as a complete line by using a liquid alloy. Made in England in 1961 and imported (by Malaysia) during the 1960s, it brought about a significant change in the printing industry in terms of speed.

“In fact, the term ‘line-o-type’ was taken from this machine which produced an entire line of metal type at once,” said Muhammad Al-Amin.

The golden era of letterpress printing also witnessed The Royal Press creating a letter-block library to make it easier for its staff to find the letters on the printing blocks considering that there were over 150,000 blocks featuring Roman Malay and English, Arabic, Chinese and Tamil characters.   

“One can imagine how efficient the workers were then. Not only must they know where the blocks were placed but their eyes had to be sharp enough to read the lettering on the blocks concerned.

“This is because the letters came in different point sizes and fonts. The smallest point size in our possession is six and the biggest 72,” he added.

 

Lamenting that the advent of modern printing techniques have sidelined letterpress printing, Muhammad Al-Amin said it is sad that the heritage craft is disappearing into oblivion, along with the people equipped with the skills to operate letterpress machines.

Fortunately, The Royal Press chief executive officer Ee Soon Wei, a member of the third generation of the founder’s family, is dedicated to preserving the letterpress craft by ensuring the printing machines and materials are kept in good condition.

“The main challenge is getting the necessary spare parts in case a machine needs to be repaired because they are no longer being produced. We have a special technician who maintains the machines periodically by cleaning them and applying grease,” he said.

Ee said his family wants the heritage craft to be remembered and appreciated by the people, adding that if not for their initiative to turn the company premises into a museum, the young generation would not have known the existence of printing machines that formed a part of this country’s history.

He added that The Royal Press museum is also making arrangements to conduct special workshops for the young generation to experience what it is like to use the letterpress machines.

 

Translated by Rema Nambiar

BERNAMA