A pleasant and memorable chapter in the history of the Ballantyne Press is its connection with the Edinburgh International Exhibition of 1886, held in the West Meadows. The position occupied by Paul’s Work relative to the literary history of Edinburgh since the beginning of last century, as well as other considerations, induced the firm to make an exhibit of ancient printing materials and of Early Bibles and other books in the Old Edinburgh buildings of that Exhibition; and to show a working model, so to speak, of an early printing-house. This was considered to be a very attractive feature of the Exhibition, and the following account of it appeared in the Scotsman of September 15, 1886. “THE BALLANTYNE PRESS IN ‘OLD EDINBURGH’ “Passing through the Nether Bow Port, and keeping to the left, visitors to the Exhibition will come upon the reproduction of an old house in Dickson’s Close, now improved away, and supposed to have been originally the work of Robert Mylne, the builder of the modern portion of Holyrood, and peculiar from its upper storeys and open galleries projecting for several feet beyond the basement—a not uncommon feature of the architecture of olden times. This house, or a near neighbour to it in the same ‘land,’ was at one time the abode of David Allan, the Scottish Hogarth. Above the door is an old-fashioned swinging signboard showing ‘Ye Ballantyne Presse, 1796,’ while the windows are adorned with stained glass. Here Messrs. Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., Paul’s Work, have gathered together a goodly display of the old implements of the ‘prenters,’ ancient Bibles and other books, as well as a number of other curios. “Prominent among the typographical antiquities is a venerable wooden hand-press, nearly two centuries old, and substantially identical with those used in the early stages of the art. This press is worked by a genial and chatty representative of Caxton, in a neat sixteenth-century costume. He is engaged printing off sundry jobs, using the old-fashioned hand-balls or ‘dabbers’ for putting the ink on the types, a method of inking which came in with the art, and which was superseded by the modern ‘roller’ only about fifty years ago. Within the cases on the counter of this old curiosity shop are to be seen ancient composing-sticks, type moulds, punches, matrices, &c., for casting types. In the cases are also a number of relative curiosities, lent for exhibition by the Oxford University Press, and originally the property of the celebrated Dr. Fell. Among these is a small quarto book, printed in 1700, containing the Lord’s Prayer in upwards of 200 languages. Here also is a parcel of Icelandic type, given to the Oxford Press by Francis Junius about 1677, and some music type of the seventeenth century.