The End of an Era for a Pioneer Printer
Austin A. Bell closes his Seattle jobbing business, offering his entire stock of type and heavy press equipment at a clearance price.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The undersigned, desiring to close out his jobbing business in Seattle, will sell the following materials at very low rates for cash: Super Royal Hand Press, $150; 50 lbs. metal furniture, $15; 9 job cases, $1.50 each, and the following assortment of wood type, consisting of 14 fonts: Eight line Gothic Tuscan, ten line Clarendon condensed, ten line Columbia with figures, twenty line Roman extra condensed No. 1, thirty line Roman extra condensed No. 1, eight line French Clarendon, six line Antique condensed, eight line lightface, fifteen line Roman extra condensed No. 1, twenty-four line French Antique, twenty line Aldine. The above lot is worth, new, $300; it is as good as new, and will be sold for the small sum of $160. Austin A. Bell. Address, Ben Brown & Co., Agents, Seattle, W.T.
“The above lot is worth, new, $300; it is as good as new, and will be sold for the small sum of $160.”
Austin A. Bell’s 1878 liquidation reflects the high cost of entry and the volatility of early printing businesses in a frontier town. Just as today’s local independent publishers and small media outlets struggle with the rapid shift to digital, Bell’s sale marks the quiet departure of a trade that served as the backbone of territorial civic discourse.
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