Rob Lamb and The Gum Tree Press

Rob Lamb began his printing career at the Evening Post in the mid 70’s – after the usual OE he returned to Wellington in the early 80’s and found work with an ‘olds cool’ craftsman printer who took him under his proverbial and showed him what real printing was all about (newspaper work in those days being all linotype and set and forget).

 He learnt the language and nuances of handsetting type, letterpress platens and more. Moving to the South island in 1985 he established a small press in Takaka (Argus Print) then in the early 1990’s shifted to his current hometown of Dunedin.

Letterpress printing practically disappeared with the onset of digital and he was made redundant. In 2007 while looking for a brass tap in a Dunedin 2nd hand shop he found an 1895 Foolscap (A4) ARAB handfed platen and founded the Gumtree Press.

Rob lives at The Gums (an old railway stop on the main south trunk line) in Purakanui. Soon he had another Demi Crown (A3) ARAB platen and 70 cases of type and teamed up with David Stedman of DUTYBOUND, also an ‘old school’ hand bookbinder, producing his first book for local Purakanui poet David Howard.

“I print books – mainly short run, high quality, limited edition work - not the ‘rats and mice’ (printers talk for ‘rubbish’ work like invoice books, business cards etc) of the old days. Did I say I LOVE books? – I’ve been reading since I was 3 years old!”

“ I’ve since branched out into art gallery catalogues and have produced work for a Jeffrey Harris exhibition and recently collaborated with Lyttelton artist Jason Greig. Jason had recently completed a body of work with ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ as his theme. I designed, printed and published the book with Jason’s wonderful illustrations. David Stedman bound the book in Red Moroccan cloth with gold and silver embossed covers and we’re very pleased with the result”.

‘I’m working with Peter Olds on our next book – he’s a favourite writer of mine and another Dunedin boy”.

Rob has also partnered with Nelson artist and fine art printer Wendy Griffin.

“I met Wendy in 1994 when I sold her my Chandler platen. We found one another again and between us have 9 presses including the original Albion used in the 1890’s for the Nelson Evening mail. We’ve been teaching each other and now cover all styles of letterpress and fine art etching cylinder press work. I’m words, Wendy’s the art”.

“I’m a writer and musician – The New Zealot is my second book, my first being ‘Scotch and Dry Dreams’ which disappeared in the early 80’s. The New Zealot is an ‘epic’ - a 30 verse narrative poem in concrete style about meeting the Goddess online and having coffee with Her in the Otago Museum café where She gives me the ‘message’. It’s fact and fiction – faction I call it!”

Rob, with Gumtree and David with DUTYBOUND are arguably the only letterpress printing and hand bookbinding team in the South island, if not NZ. They are both musicians and share a love of classic cars, Fender guitars and, of course, the Ancient Celtick City of Dunedin.

“I could only have done this in Dunedin – I love the literary and Scottish feel, the art, fashion and music, the university and libraries. In my opinion we’re the only ‘distinctive’ NZ city – The Scots passion for education and engineering is real life here. The Uni keeps the town vibrant and young and the lower half of the South island is the last truly ‘wild’ part of NZ. The longer the rest of NZ thinks we’re all snow and ice the better as far as I’m concerned”.

Printer’s Note; - The New Zealot is completely handset and printed on Victorian era handfed platen presses. The paper used is archival quality ‘felted’ and the hardcover is Buckram cloth with foil embossed titles.

For a list of The Gumtree Press publications contact gumtree@slingshot.co.nz or phone Rob Lamb on +64 03 4822259 any time.

The New Zealot -  limited edition of 75 copies - $120.00 postage free in NZ and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - $175.00 - limited edition run of 100 copies - also postage free in NZ