Franklin Press



Blades NM says of this item: "This is a trade token, issued in London from a printing-office known in 1794 as "The Franklin Press," and the first idea is that it must have been struck by the old firm of Watts, of Wylde Court, where Franklin worked as a journeyman. On inquiry, however, of the present partners (1867), all connection with the token was disclaimed, as was the fact of their printing-office having ever been called "The Franklin Press." A search in Kent's Directory for 1794 was equally fruitless, as were also inquiries of those printers who had taken most interest in the history of Franklin and the wooden press at which he had worked. On the other hand, there is traditional evidence that the printing-office in Wylde Court, where Franklin worked when in London, was called "The Franklin Press" about that year. There is a pressman now (1870) at work in London, named Walsh, who showed me a poorly preserved specimen of this very token which had descended to him from his father, John Walsh, who worked at Watts's in 1794. He well remembers his father speaking of Watts's as "The Franklin Press" and that all the workmen had some of the tokens distributed to them."