Press letters at Eastern Market

I love printing presses. I've worked for a couple of newspapers with their own printing presses, and I loved watching the newspapers roll — well, more like ride and slide — off the presses. The smell of the ink chemicals and paper, the noisy train-like clatter of the hulking, floor-to-ceiling machines, the men and women scurrying about, turning this wheel, checking on that, snatching a paper off the conveyor belt to examine the alignment of the color plates. It feels magical to be in a room where something is being born.

So I was pleased as a paperboy with a new subscription to find this vendor in the Saturday flea market at the Capitol Hill's Eastern Market in D.C. Friends over at Nomuda Games had actually given me such letters to spell out the name of the first startup I worked for, but I hadn't seen the trays myself.

I bought another set, after sifting through the cold, metal letters. Six letters. $15. A piece of history.

A tray of letters from printing presses, now for sale at Eastern Market.