Scarce and Excellent Looking Antique STAR Printer's Make-Up Rule antique physiography notebook Total joy finding this painting

Total joy finding this painting in a random spot in MA this week—with this tiny couple in the distance

Hard to get scale from photos but it feels substantial in size

and on one side some of the blue bleeds into the cream

and this painterly yellow to orange to reddish brown ground that seems very much intended to capture the feeling of summer giving way to autumn

Scarce and Excellent Looking Antique STAR Printer's Make-Up Rule antique physiography notebook Total joy finding this paintingI spotted this in a case at an antiques shop in central MA and jumped on it just for the sight of it, but have since come to learn it is a rather iconic little tool in the type laying world: a Star printer's make up rule (or composing rule) used in letterpress printing for measuring and justifying lines of type. Not in the least my expertise, but in the realm of printing history these seem to hold a special place; I read one wonderful story of a print