This set of printing-related tools and equipment was previously used in Kuon Ying Press (冠英印务局), a printing shop based in Kampar—a town in Perak, Malaysia. The tools and equipment include tweezers to pick individual typesets, plates on which to arrange typesets, “doctor blades” to remove additional ink from the printing plates, counters to print the running numbers on invoices, tools for creating perforation on invoice booklets and so on. These tools and equipment showcase the many stages involved in printing using Chinese typesets before the advent of computers. Kuon Ying Press was established in the 1920s and printed a variety of materials ranging from cinema tickets to wedding invitation cards for the local community. Kuon Ying Press also served as a half-way house for immigrants from the founder’s hometown in China (Heshan, Guangdong) who stayed at the shop while they search for jobs in Malaya. The shop remained in operation during the Japanese Occupation and might have printed for the Japanese army as well.
