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¶ GIAMPA'S IMPOSING STONE; Standing upright on the corner of the marble stone is a brass ink wash up can. Alongside is a mallet, planer and quoin key. A type form is locked up in a chase on the far right corner of the marble.
Giampa used to clamp a jeweller's vise on the corner of the same bench. This vise was used to hold combinations of 8, 10 and 12 point type for hand kerning with a file and gravure. This was not common in the trade. Giampa learnt how to kern small type from his mentor Wil Hudson who was the only printer he ever saw doing it. It was possible and a lot easier to kern while setting on a Lanston Monotype typesetting machine.
Some good compositors setting for advertising agencies sometimes undercut type on larger point bodies with a printer's saw. That is relatively easy but still was uncommon.
Behind, in the corner is a book case with the early beginnings of Giampa's collection of type books.
1305 Lynn Valley Road was Giampa's first commercial premises. The press and shop window is behind the camera. The back room was behind the stained glass and the wall. Many items of this picture are with him in Prince Edward Island.
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¶ THE MARBLE IMPOSING STONE is where Giampa would design his projects. In this photo he is without a proof press and is using the traditional proofing planer. Such a planer amounts to an ergonomically shaped block of wood with a felt bottom. His planer was identical in every way to his type planer except the later did not have the felt.