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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Perth Printing Industry
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Dundee
Colville must be given full credit for publishing the first Dundee
Directory in 1782. It was entitled the Dundee Register of Merchants
and Trades and consisted of 72 pages. This publication was intended
to be the first of a regular series but unfortunately, because of
lack of support, it also became the last of its kind when Colville
printed a second Directory in 1809. It was published in January
of that year, priced 2s 6d. Although the population of the town
had risen by then to about 30,000 only 700 copies were sold and
Colville abandoned his plans for an 1810 edition.
Another of Colville’s works was the Dundee Magazine and Journal
of the Times which he first printed and published in January 1799.
Four or five volumes of this work were issued, each volume containing
about 700 pages.
Colville was invited to print the recently founded Dundee Weekly
Advertiser and Angusshire Intelligencer in 1801 and continued in
charge of the production until 1805 when a change of ownership resulted
in the paper being printed and published by the new proprietors
in Peter’s Buildings, St Andrew’s Place, Cowgate. Not
to be outdone, Colville started a rival paper to the Advertiser
which he entitled the Dundee Mercury. This consisted of four pages
and was published weekly on Wednesdays, price sixpence. Colville’s
office at this time was situated in Bisset’s Close on the north
side of the Overgate near the ‘Cross’ and was distinguished
from the adjacent buildings by a figure of Mercury above the entrance.
After seven years of striving to compete, the Mercury closed down,
leaving the field to the Advertiser.
Undaunted, Colville and his son, Alexander, again ventured into
publishing in 1815 with the Dundee Magazine but this too met an
early fate. One more attempt was made to provide a weekly newspaper
when, on 20 September 1816, Colville and his son produced the first
number of the Dundee Courier. Its page size was 14 ins by 10.5 ins
and the price 7d. On his death in August 1819, Colville’s business
passed to his son Alexander. Soon afterwards the business became
bankrupt and the newspaper and plant were offered for sale. A number
of influential citizens met and proposed that David Hill, who printed
a struggling news-paper in Montrose, be approached and asked to
take over the Courier. This he did in November 1823 and continued
to edit and publish the news-paper for the next ten years. When
his health was failing, Hill assumed Charles Alexander as a partner
and the company, Hill & Alexander, continued to publish the
Courier for many years. For a further period the proprietors of
the newspaper were Charles Alexander & Co. until it was taken
over by W. & D. C. Thomson.
Shortly before 1800, Francis Ray came to Dundee and for a brief
period before Colville took it over in 1801, he was the printer
of the Dundee Advertiser. It is claimed that he issued the first
Gazetteer of Scotland as well as an edition of Rollin’s Ancient
History containing engravings by Thomas Ivory of Dundee.
In 1808 the Advertiser appears to have been pur-chased by Mr R.
S. Rintoul who for the next seventeen years was editor, printer
and proprietor.
During the following twenty-five years the paper was printed by
Alexander Macdonald, the printing office being then in Argyle Close,
Overgate. In July 1851 John Leng moved north from Hull to become
the new editor, printer and publisher and soon afterwards part proprietor
of the newspaper. Probably his most successful new launching was
the People’s Journal, which quickly built up a wide circulation
throughout the coun-try. His long and distinguished service to the
community was recognised when he was awarded a knighthood.
Contemporaries of Thomas Colville were William and James Chalmers.
The former opened a book-seller’s shop at 10/12 Castle Street
in 1788, and in 1805 his brother James took over and expanded the
business by adding a printing office at 7 New Inn Entry and an ink
manufactory at No 4. In 1829 the company issued their first Directory
and in the same year their Mercantile Tables was published. By 1851
all printing was carried out at Thom’s Close in the High Street.
James Chalmers introduced the first lithographic works to Dundee
in 1829 and is renowned as the designer of the first adhesive stamp
in 1834.
When the poor people of the town suffered great hardship during
a severe depression, James Chalmers cleaned out his ink boilers
and made soup in them for the distressed. The soup was ladled out
at the workshop door by his pressman. James Chalmers died in 1853
and his son took over the business, running it under the name of
C. D. Chalmers until 1870 when it was changed to Chalmers &
Winter. On the death of C. D. Chalmers in 1877, David Winter succeeded
to the business. He subsequently formed a partnership with James
Duncan (foreman printer) and John Duncan (bookbinder) under the
designation Winter, Duncan & Co. In 1907 the company changed
its name to D. Winter & Son. Remarkably, David Winter continued
in business until 1932 when, at the age of 96, he died suddenly
of a heart attack. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick, who was
head of the firm until his death in 1960. In that year Ann Winter
was appointed chairman and was still in that office in 1995 at the
age of 92. The company was sold in 1987 but the name David Winter
& Son has been retained.
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Volume 3 published 1996
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