[Colenso, William] 1811-1899 :[Printer's composing stick, ca 1832]

A rectangular ferrous metal plate with right-angle edge at top left-hand side and separate ferrous metal adjustable bar attached to edge by ferrous metal screw and copper alloy nut.

This composing stick was used in the printing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840

Exhibited in 'Posted love; love letters from the Turnbull Library and beyond', at the National Library Gallery, 9 April - 4 July 1999.

Exhibited in 'Nga Kupu Korero: People of the Treaty speak' exhibition held at the National Library Gallery in 1992, which toured New Zealand.

William Colenso was New Zealand's first printer, working at Paihia at the Bay of Islands from 1835. He began work as a printer in 1833 in England and brought this composing stick with him when he came to New Zealand at the end of 1834. On Jan 3 1835 he recorded the landing of the press and other printing equipment, mentioning the lack of many essential pieces of printing equipment, including "no composing sticks (save a private one of my own that I had bought two years before in London, a most fortunate circumstance!)"

Quantity: 1 curio(s).

Physical Description: Iron composing stick with copper screw 44 x 180 x 16 mm

Provenance: The donor was the widow of printer Robert Coupland Harding, who had been a friend and pupil of Colenso's in Napier from the early 1860s.

Alternative form available: Slides with treatment record