Painted cast-iron American Eagle printer's "Columbian Press" counterweight and lever, Ritchie & Son, Edinburgh, Scotland, circa 1860

Cast in swell-bodied form, molded on both sides, the spread-winged American eagle standing on a fruit-filled cornucopia and sheaf of wheat; together with the cat-iron "dolphin" lever.  2 pieces.

An engraving of the press is pictured in Phillip, M. Isaacon, The American Eagle, (Little Brown & Co., 1977).
Wendy A. Cooper, Classical Taste in America 1800-1840, (Abbeville Press, 1993), pp. 23, 192-3.

The Columbian iron hand press was invented in 1813 by a Philadelphia mechanic named George Clymer (1754–1834).  Clymer made several dozen presses before leaving Philadelphia in 1818 to manufacture presses in England and Europe.  The design incorporated levers and counterweights.  The eagle counterweight balanced on the counterpoise lever on the top of the press.

The press was adopted in 1819 as the emblem of Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Typographical Society, a local union of journeyman printers.

Information for this entry came from the National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Washington, D.C.