The Vandercook proof press was originally used in commercial printshops, but in recent years artists have been using the Vandercook to create wonderful letterpress work. There is even a Flickr group dedicated to the Vandercook -- you can see photos of real Vandercooks and examples of letterpress printing there.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Vandercook, the Pacific Center for the Book Arts sent it's members (including me) a cardstock scale model of the press. The pieces had to be assembled, and in spite of being not one who excels at poking tabs into their correct slots, I did manage to put the thing together.
This is the finished model, looking surprisingly Vandercook-like. It even has a tiny little foot pedal -- you can see it on the lower left side.
The Ampersand (pictured, with a photo of the model Vandercook on the cover) is the quarterly journal of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts.
The model of the Vandercook even came with the most excellent Vandercook logo on the side.
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