St Bride Foundation was established in 1891 as the social and educational hub of the printing and publishing industry on Fleet Street. John Bull Printing Sets are among Britain’s oldest and most popular toys and the most common childhood introduction to ‘relief printing’. I remember it with a wooden dabber, just like the rubber stampers you used to encounter in ancient banks and offices. From 1940 until his death in 1954 he lived with my mother (his daughter Helen) and my late brother and myself at Meopham, Kent.

I used to have a John Bull printing set, which had a load of tiny rubber letters, which you would set into a wooden holder then press on an ink pad, and print out. which could accommodate several line of rubber type in a grooved drum, rather like the American Multigraph printing machine. Glyn Jones, Peter Lawley, Ian Marshall, Stephen Peel Middle Row Females L to R - Michele Laviers, Anne Davies, Carol Winter, Susan Collins, Kathy Cook, Anne Turtle, Jennifer Went Front Row L to R Chris Farmer, Susan Ayling, RR Davies, Miss J. Intellivision It was an Atari world back in the late 70s and early 80s, but Mattel’s Intellivison staged a pretty good coup. There was a famous precedent for this, with tea importer and blender Arthur Brooke inventing a non-existent business partner—Mr.Some people online have suggested they a product of the John Bull Rubber Company but the names are just a co-incidence, as the two firms logos are similar but not the same (and lets face it using the name John Bull was not rare, there was even a magazine by this name into the Fifties). One of my jobs at work is proof-reading the puzzles page for our newspapers, which kind of spoils the enjoyment, really. More of the history and prehistory of the John Bull kits appears at British Letterpress in 100 Objects. Acquired over the past century or so they are not catalogued, but form part of our Special Collections. Amounts shown in italicised text are for items listed in currency other than Euros and are approximate conversions to Euros based upon Bloomberg's conversion rates.

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The product range expanded and by the early 1960s included a small rotary hand press which could accommodate several lines of rubber type in a grooved drum.