Head­ing to see a friend in Anglia, I took the chance to con­tact John at Fran­cis Cupiss, Diss. The reply shot back that John was away but Richard would give us a glimpse of the works.

We were invit­ed to step inside the epit­o­me of a prop­er print­ing works: cast iron guil­lo­tine, Columbian press, pair of Hei­del­berg Platens. In fact a peek around the cor­ner showed an Inter­type and the smell of the place was intox­i­cat­ing.

Richard showed off the fir­m’s work, detailed, cre­ative, metic­u­lous work from the small­est busi­ness cards to delight­ful posters reflect­ing the fir­m’s first print­ing to pro­mote Cupiss’ Con­sti­tu­tion Balls for hors­es.

Friends Wel­come
Fam­i­ly by Appoint­ment

Cupiss Poster, being print­ed on the Hei­del­berg

Upstairs we were shown copies of the Suf­folk Stud Book: annu­als of horse breed­ing, but beau­ti­ful­ly bound and gold-blocked; halftone hors­es; and the lin­eage of beasts with long print­ers braces. All pro­duced in the same build­ing to the most exact­ing stan­dards.

Today, Cupiss offers every­day print­ing for the peo­ple of Diss, but are also a bea­con of let­ter­press print­ing.

John and Richard run a com­mer­cial con­cern — this isn’t a work­ing muse­um or a hob­by print­er’s set-up gone too far. While they are still print­ing, please do keep them up and run­ning. The set up and Richard’s exper­tise and easy man­ner will be a remark­able head-start for any new let­ter­press print­er and the day of tuition/experience would be a great invest­ment for any print­er.

Thank you, Cupiss Print­ers, for show­ing us around!