The Gregynog Press, also known as Gwasg Gregynog, is a printing press and charity in Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

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Founded in 1922 by the sisters and art patrons Margaret

Margaret Davies

Margaret Sidney Davies , was a Welsh art collector and patron of the arts. With her sister Gwendoline, she bequeathed a total of 260 works, particularly strong in Impressionist and 20th-century art, which formed the basis of the present-day National Museum Wales' international collection...

 and Gwendoline Davies

Gwendoline Davies

Gwendoline Elizabeth Davies, CH , was a granddaughter of the philanthropist David Davies Llandinam. Together with her sister Margaret, she is remembered as a patron of the arts in Wales and important collector of Impressionist and 20th-century art...

, the press was named after their mansion Gregynog Hall

Gregynog

Gregynog is a large country hall in the village of Tregynon, 4 miles northwest of Newtown in Powys, mid-Wales. Various halls have occupied the site since the twelfth century and it was the ancestral home of the Blayneys and the Traceys from the fifteenth century...

. It rose to prominence in the pre-war

Pre-war

The term pre-war or prewar is usually applied to the most recent or significant war in a culture's history.Antebellum is most often used to denote the period before the American Civil War while pre-war typically refers to the period before WWII.In real estate the term refers to buildings from the...

 era as among the more important private press

Private press

Private press is a term used in the field of book collecting to describe a printing press operated as an artistic or craft-based endeavor, rather than as a purely commercial venture...

es, publishing limited edition books, primarily on a Victoria platen press

Printing press

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

. Much of the printing work from 1927 to 1936 was carried out by the skilled printer Herbert John Hodgson

Herbert John Hodgson

Herbert John Hodgson is regarded as one of the most skilled printers of the twentieth century. After serving in the First World War, with Roy Manning Pike he printed the rare 1926 subscribers' edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence...

, who had previously worked on the 1926 edition of the T.J. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British soldier T. E. Lawrence , while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918....

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In 1954 after the death of Gwendoline Davies, Margaret donated most of the machinery used by Gregynog Press to the National Library of Wales

National Library of Wales

The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...

. The press was reopened under the Welsh title Gwasg Gregynog by the University of Wales

University of Wales

The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...

 in 1978, and production resumed. While the National Library permanently loaned the Press its original Victoria platen press in 1980, since 1986 it has primarily printed with a Heidelberg Cylinder Press

Rotary printing press

A rotary printing press is a printing press in which the images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. Printing can be done on large number of substrates, including paper, cardboard, and plastic. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuous roll through the press to be printed and...

. Typesetting

Typesetting

Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...

 of the smallest pieces is done by hand, but otherwise manuscripts are typeset with the use of a Monotype machine

Monotype Corporation

Monotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Monotype Imaging Holdings is the owner of Monotype Imaging Inc., Linotype,...

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In 2002, Gwasg Gregynog became a company limited by guarantee

Company limited by guarantee

In British and Irish company law, a private company limited by guarantee is an alternative type of corporation used primarily for non-profit organisations that require legal personality. A guarantee company does not usually have a share capital or shareholders, but instead has members who act as...

, charity no. 1090060, intended to benefit and educate the public. It offers lectures related to the press and printing techniques, as well as offering tours of press facilities, which are dedicated to maintaining traditional printing methods.

The press has been involved in several historic events in Wales in connection to its National Assembly

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

. When the Assembly opened in Wales, the press produced its first documents, including a small hand-bound souvenir volume that served as the Assembly's first publication. Later, in 2006, it bound a poem commissioned to mark the opening of the Senedd

Senedd

The Senedd , also known as the National Assembly building, houses the debating chamber and three committee rooms for the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff. The Senedd building was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 1 March 2006 and the total cost was £69.6 million, which included £49.7M in...

, the Assembly's permanent home, and written in calligraphy

Western calligraphy

Western Calligraphy is the art of writing. A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner." The story of writing is one of aesthetic development framed within the technical skills, transmission speed and...

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