Sigwalt Nonpareil No. 23

I bought this for a steal thinking it was a Golding, but paid a fair price or better for a Sigwalt. Since the manufacturer intended the parallel I can be forgiven. They were direct copies of the Golding Official #2. I was in search of an 1800’s tabletop press and may have gotten it just slightly. I got the look for sure with the decorative painting still intact on parts of the press. These were first made at the end of that century in 1899 and well into the 1900’s, but best I can find the round bases like mine came first and were replaced fairly quickly with square bases. Since they don’t have serial numbers there’s no way to better date mine. It prints pretty well and is great for demonstrating when drawing attention to our time period at the Conestoga Press.

Demonstrating letterpress with my Sigwalt outside the Print Shop at the Ephrata Cloister.