Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 July 2005
100-Year-Old KBA Press Still Operating
In Russia
In 1903 a Spanish printer in Madrid placed an order with German press manufacturer Albert (now KBA's Frankenthal facility) for a B1 (40") mono sheetfed gravure press.
In 1903 a Spanish printer in Madrid placed an order with German press manufacturer Albert (now KBA's Frankenthal facility) for a B1 (40") mono sheetfed gravure press The shipping documents revealed that the press was delivered in 1905
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 9 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Amazingly, it is still in operation, but not in Spain and how it came to leave the country no-one can say.
What is known is that in 1958 Ivan Ivanovich Tushilkin, a printer at the Bolshoi Theatre, stumbled across the machine on the street outside a Moscow printshop that was being refurbished.
After helping to move it to the theatre he set about searching for spare parts to replace some that were missing.
Once the press was fully functional again it was used to print posters for various Moscow theatres - and still does, said KBA.
Now retired, Tushilkin returned to the theatre on for a modest centenary celebration organised by Bolshoi director Anatoly Ixanov, who also invited KBA's president and chief executive officer, Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann and sales director Dr Peter Jargstorf.
According to Yuri Mikhailovich Tikhinov, manager of the Bolshoi printing plant, the press has turned out more than 10 million posters.
He said: "Some of them were pretty unusual.
One, celebrating the ballerina Galina Ulanova's stage jubilee, was printed on pink silk!" Although KBA has provided some assistance, it is largely thanks to the Bolshoi print staff that the press is in such an excellent condition.
Anatoly Ixanov revealed that the main stage at the Bolshoi Theatre is soon to be rebuilt, followed by a refurbishment of the workshops and the printing plant.
Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow has become an institution among ballet fans the world over. Request free introductory details about products from KBA ...
Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann commented: "I know KBA presses have a long service life, but to find such a venerable piece of equipment still functioning perfectly, and at such a famous theatre like the Bolshoi, is simply fascinating.".
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