This printing firm was one of the smaller firms in Frome, which was established by 1839 by John Gardiner at 4 Bath Street and known as the Albion Printing Office. He was also a bookseller, bookbinder and stationer. His successor, Thomas Coles, had moved from Cork Street, but was gone by 1861 when John Tulk Allen is found continuing the printing works. A Dorset man from Milton Abbas, he moved to 3 Market Place, now on part of the site of the Coventry Building Society, and in 1861 he was employing one man and 4 apprentices. He advertised as a chemist, stationer, druggist and bookseller. For a time he was in partnership with Charles James Sage, the business becoming Allen & Sage, and he died in 1871.

Charles Sage continued the business there, with his printing office at the rear. He leased 3 Market Place for 21 years at £52 p.a. but moved across to 25 Market Place (now the opticians) by 1898. In 1907 he sold his ‘Central Pharmacy’ and concentrated on the printing side of his business in premises in King Street. He finally retired in 1906 and died in 1908.He was a founder member of the Chamber of Commerce and Frome Mutual Glass Protection Society and organist and decacon at Sheppard’s Barton Baptist Church.