The Caseg Press
In an article for the Liverpool Echo published on 3 May, Dawn Collinson reviewed the value of certain forms of prime ministerial memorabilia. Included in this was mention of a Margaret Thatcher teapot fetching the sum of £70, a ceramic bust of William Gladstone fetching about £100 but noting (lamentably it seems to me) that a corkscrew with a composition handle in the form of [Earl] Lloyd George of Dwyfor – regarded by many in Llanystumdwy, his home village, as a saint – only made £22.
Collinson goes on, as an aside, to mention the famous printing press in Llanystumdwy called the Caseg Press (Mare’s Press), funded by Lady Megan Lloyd George. Collinson writes that the Press lasted only four years but its work there by John Petts is extremely highly-prized and very expensive if you can find any examples. The Caseg Press may have had a longer run than the four years indicated in the article because there are examples of its art publishing and the poetry for which it was acclaimed going back to the early 1940s, possibly even back to 1937, and lasting until 1951. Perhaps the press was only operational in Llanystumdwy from 1947-1951 as earlier pressings bore the location imprint of Llanllechid but the point is that, as Collinson indicates, examples of its work are rare and valuable.
If you have copies of Caseg Press publications on your bookshelves or tucked away in your attic, and you can bear to part with them, now maybe the time to drag them out and take them to the local auction house.
The full text of Dan Collinson’s article is online at:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/echo-columnists/2008/05/03/politics-of-collectors-100252-20854524/
