Saturday, December 3, 2011

Typewriter Sightings: Making The Usual Rounds


The first sighting last week was this rather unappealing Hermes 3000...

Which was followed by an almost identical one (except this was a Media 3)...

And yet another, a few feet away. It was really quite odd! But there were a couple of other machines too...

A '40s Hermes Baby with French AZERTY keyboard,

This beautifully-bulbous Remington Quiet-Riter,

And just when we thought we'd seen everything, this Underwood standard with an extra-long carriage.

This Erika 5 Tab has just appeared at a local thrift store, and seems to be in rather nice shape. Pity I have a couple of Erikas already, one of which is almost identical.

This week, we came upon this absolutely gorgeous Triumph, with an international QWERTY keyboard. I keep peering at the type slugs to see if an unusual typeface will give me a good excuse to make a purchase, but this was ordinary pica. Sigh. Hopefully it will still be there next week?

The same seller was offering this Mignon Index Typewriter, with a print-out from Richard's site (translated into French) rolled around the platen to demonstrate the value of the machine. How amusing!

The other thrift store in town had a couple of machines I'd already seen, and this was the newcomer: a Triumph Tippa with techno pica typeface.

And... that just about wraps things up. Now we'll just have to wait and see what shows up next Saturday :)

7 comments:

  1. I still find it surreal to see things like that printout from my site. Basically, the Internet is magic.

    Good Fraktur typing!

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  2. I would never get tired of that typeface!
    Also I like the looks of the Mignon

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  3. Very nice typeface! I really like it. Those machines are nice. I'd be broke if I lived in Geneva. Then I could also end up homeless since there would be no room left for me in the house if it was filled with typewriters!
    Great post.

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  4. This is redundant but I am bewitched by that typeface!

    Also, the yellow Erika brand name design/typeface is so cool! How amusing that the Erika is just ho-hum for you, goes to show that you really are in the typewriter capital of the world. Cheers!

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  5. It's very interesting to see how your syntax changes when you write on with the Fractur typewriter -- it's almost like you are channeling some other being!

    Your wonderful pictures of typewriters that you do NOT buy reminds me that I need to take my camera with me to EVERY thrift store from now on, to document the ones that I passed up. (This is a new experience for me, to pass them up...)

    I just spent the week in Modesto, a farm town down in the Central Valley of California playing symphonic Christmas Pops music, and went to several thrift stores and estate sales where I came across quite a few typewriters. ALL overpriced, in every imaginable condition from totally useless to just "okay".

    I wish I had my camera. $49 for a Smith Corona Classic 12? I don't THINK so!!!!!

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  6. Oooh, that's a pretty Triumph! You are strong in the Force to be able to pass that one up (:

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  7. Even though they lack the charm of other typewriters, I have really come to appreciate the Remington Quiet-Riter series of typewriters. They have a nice touch and the platen rubber really lasts a long time. All of the Quiet-Riters I have in my classroom still have very soft platens. They are magical machines.

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