The Adana Agency was founded in 1922 by Donald Aspinall. The company's assets were then bought by Frederick Ayers in 1940 and the company was relaunched as Adana (Printing Machines) Limited in 1946. In 1987 the assets were again sold, this time to Caslon Limited who continued to produce a small number of presses for a further six years. Throughout the years, both the company and its presses were usually referred to as "Adana" or "The Adana".
Donald Aspinall Donald Affleck Aspinall was born in
South Kensington, London, in 1899. Unusually for the time, his parents separated, and his father Herbert left the seven-year-old Donald and his brothers, John and Cecil, in the sole care of their mother, Lilian. Aspinall served in the 10th Battalion of the Essex Regiment in
World War I, joining the army one week after his eighteenth birthday. He was medically discharged in 1918 and returned from the front suffering from
shell-shock. While recovering, he began working on the design of a small flat-bed printing press. He advertised it in
Model Engineer magazine in 1918 and was overwhelmed by the response. The teenage Aspinall is said to have tried to hand the money over to the local constabulary, rather than face the prospect of fulfilling so many orders. He was persuaded that this was not a wise move by an understanding policeman, and he eventually produced enough machines to fill the orders. After losing his job five years later, Aspinall founded the Adana Agency and turned his hobby into a business. From premises in
Twickenham, he began selling flat-bed wooden presses to hobby printers. The competitive pricing and self-inking system ensured its success. In 1928 he married Dorothy Lucas. They later had two children, Robert and Diana. The company was going from strength to strength, with new models launched regularly, showrooms opening in London and Manchester, and official
distributors enlisted in New York and
Perth, Western Australia. A decade later, the company's fortunes declined. In 1939 Aspinall suffered the first of several
strokes and the economic pressures of World War II left the
Adana Agency in meltdown. After a meeting of the creditors, the company's assets were sold to Frederick Ayers. Until his death in 1948, Aspinall continued to correspond with Frederick Ayers, sharing advice and ideas for new designs. Aspinall's engineering achievements are sometimes dismissed as he borrowed so heavily from American designs, but his business acumen and talent for re-working existing ideas (such as creating a revolving ink-disk for his flat-bed presses) are widely acknowledged.
Frederick Ayers Engineer Frederick Ayers became involved with the company in 1923 when his company started supplying parts to the fledgling Adana Agency. He became friends with Aspinall, and began to offer design advice. As one of the company's creditors, he was able to purchase the assets cheaply in 1940 when the company became insolvent.
The war years Like many others, the company was effectively on hold during World War II, with a skeleton staff supplying only parts and sundries. They were asked to supply small flat-bed presses for the
Resistance movement in Europe but little else happened until 1945 when production began again on a very limited basis. Ongoing rationing meant raw materials were in short supply and it wasn't until around 1950 that the company was able to trade at full
capacity again.
Post-war expansion By 1952, Adana had distributors in Italy, Turkey, Greece, India, Finland and Canada. They continued to expand until
Adanas were available in nearly 100 countries around the world.
The end of Adana There were unavoidable price increases as parts and labour became more expensive.
Adana presses were virtually indestructible and the company had a policy of supplying parts, so there was little incentive to buy new when second-hand presses were readily available.
Lithography was drawing away much of the commercial market and
letterpress printing (along with many crafts) became unfashionable as the 1980s brought new technology into homes. The company was
wound down and Caslon purchased the manufacturing rights for the Adana printing press in 1987. However the Gray's Inn Road printshop continued trading as small independent business. In 2012 the printshop, under new ownership, was renamed Adana Graphic Supplies Limited (company number 07988276) and eventually relocated to 18
City Road, London in 2015. Caslon Limited continued to produce the more popular presses until 1999 when the last
Eight-Five was sold in Japan. Caslon still supply parts and
refurbish old
Adanas to new condition.
Rebirth of the Eight-Five A resurgence of interest in letterpress printing as a hobby, and as a premium commercial product, resulted in the reintroduction of the Adana "Eight-Five" in 2016, when production of the machine was restarted. The basic design has been modified to produce a thicker body shell, capable of achieving the deeper letterpress impression now fashionable. The relaunched press is known as the "85C". ==Other activities==