|
|
A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Glasgow Printing Industry
1 2
3
4
5
6
7
8 9
10
11 12
13
14 15
16
17
18
19 2021
Part Four - The Era of
Industrialisation
The Villafield works were offered for sale after Andrew Duncan resigned
as University Printer in 1827, and John Blackie Senior bought the
press and some adjoining ground in 1829. A Robert Hutchison purchased
some of the other ground and was University Printer with George
Brookman, printing from Villafield between 1831 and 1832. They had
also been in partnership with John Blackie from 1827. It seems that
George Brookman and George Brookman & Co. were printers in partnership
with John Blackie between 1832 and 1837 and also University Printers.
In 1837 John Blackie became the sole owner of Villafield, carried
out all printing for the firm, and founded the family business of
W. G. Blackie & Co. (the name ‘Villafield’ was continued
when Blackies built a new factory in Bishopbriggs in 1925).
By this time William Collins (Printers & Publishers) had been
set up at 28 Candleriggs Court in 1819 by William Collins. He was
born in 1789 in Eastwood, a parish outside Glasgow. The firm was
established after Dr Chalmers, a local preacher, became dissatisfied
with his publishers and entrusted all of his work to William Collins.
Chalmers, whose preaching and sermons were renowned throughout Scotland
and in London, took this opportunity to involve his brother in a
partnership called Chalmers & Collins (Booksellers & Stationers).
On Thursday 23 September 1819, some nine days after the firm opened,
the Glasgow Courier announced: ‘Tomorrow will be published
by Chalmers & Collins The Christian and Civic Economy of Large
Towns by the Rev. D. T. Chalmers at price 1/-’.
Glasgow had become an established newspaper centre by this time.
The Glasgow Advertiser and Evening Intelligence which started in
1783 was renamed the Glasgow Herald in 1802. The paper continued
under this name until 1992 when the ‘Glasgow’ was dropped.
It is possibly the oldest national newspaper in the English reading
world. It beats The Times of London by two years.
Collins bought out Chalmers after five years and the company became
William Collins & Co. (Printers, Publishers, Booksellers &
Wholesale Stationers). In 1824 Collins published their first dictionary,
the Greek and English Lexicon. William Collins founded the Scottish
Temperance Society, and in 1837 was a member of the Church of Scotland
deputation to meet and congratulate Queen Victoria on her accession
to the throne. In 1838 he met the Duke of Wellington as part of
the Church of Scotland deputation to raise funds from Parliament
to build churches and housing for the poor in Glasgow. Illustrated
dictionaries were published in 1840, and in 1842 the firm obtained
a licence to print and publish the Bible.
Between 1833 and 1846 Edward Khull, son of Khull who printed in
partnership with John Blackie, was printer to the University of
Glasgow. In 1834 when working from 65 Virginia Street, Khull announced
that he had begun ‘Printing by Steam’, a process which
would enable him to execute work with a facility not hitherto attainable
in the west of Scotland and at the same time with that neatness
for which his work had been noted. To proprietors of newspapers
and to those interested he stated that he had made suitable arrangements
for the safe and speedy conveyance of the ‘Formes’ from
and to their respective offices if they wished to avail themselves
of his ‘Steam Press’.
|
|
Volume 2 published 1994
Buy a
copy of the illustrated book?
Download a PDF (9.9MB)
|
