Dr Harris added: “It dates from around the 1800s [and] was used by the Admiralty for maps and charts and has that history associated with it.”
He is one of eight artists who will work with the machine during the Start The Press! exhibition, which has opened to the public.
The intaglio press takes its position in the gallery “as a form of occupation in the tradition of art-school student sit-ins,” organisers said.
Student protests in Wolverhampton were common around Enoch Powell’s 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech, explained Dr Harris.
“At that time there was a distinct print-making course at the art school, and at that time we also had a lithograph and letter press too.”
