The bench
The family
Six generations of Strikewells, plus the people the works would not run without.
Moritz Strikewell
Founder. Bench Master, dipper, and the author of the door motto. Kept his accounts in matchboxes and refused to explain why.
Hild Strikewell
Moritz's daughter. Opened the litho room at nineteen and drew the Cheerful Home cow herself, badly, then hired someone better and kept her version in a drawer.
Piet Strikewell
Rebuilt the east wall at twenty-two. Ran the second machine hall and personally greased the belt sander every Friday until 2003.
Mira Strikewell
Archivist. Catalogued all 4,800 plates and started the journal. Famously refused a museum grant on the grounds that "the labels belong in daylight, not in a case".
Olo Strikewell
Mira's son. Modernised the compound lab and the online catalogue. Still dips a test batch every Monday, badly, on purpose.
Reve Strikewell
Sixth generation. Runs the bench with Head Dipper Ansa Kole and maintains the striking compound by taste, as trained, not by spreadsheet, as threatened.
Not family, essential
Ansa Kole · Head Dipper
Twenty-two years at the frame. Can tell a wet splint by sound. Broke the works record for a single-day dip in 2019 and then apologised to the frame.
Tobias Venk · Lithographer
Cut his first plate at seventeen. Restores the archive plates on Thursdays and insists the hedgehog label "means exactly what it says".
Greta Fen · Gallery Keeper
Runs the Striking Gallery and the tea urn. Knows every coach driver's name and every label's story, in that order.
Sam Wilby · Yard & Timber
Selects Falkenmoor aspen with the forestry crew. Holds the unofficial record for the longest splint ever cut in bay 2 (61cm, framed, unusable).