 |
| A late 1920's Royal Portable for a teen writer |
 |
| A powder blue 1957 Smith Corona Silent-Super. |
 |
| A mid 1950's Royal Aristocrat in near mint condition. |
 |
| A 1936 Royal de Luxe in beautiful shape for a college writer. |
 |
| A early tri-color Royal Futura 800. |
 |
| Is this worth saving? |
 |
| Not sure what this machine is. |
 |
| I thought it might be a Cole Steel but no. |
My condolences on the loss of your Mother-in-Law.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear your shop is going strong. That Royal looks way beyond help. The other typewriters look great.
A Very Happy New Year to you and your family.
I'm sorry to hear about your Ma, may she rest in peace...
ReplyDeleteThat Florida looks like a Swissa Junior, and that Royal just gave me the chills.
Always love reading what you have Tom!
Have a great year ahead ;)
It's good to know that you are blessed with an overabundance of people who need and value your expertise. Happy new year!
ReplyDeleteThat has got to be the most messed-up Royal 10 ever!
The Royal De Luxe is a beauty. I got to try one at California Typewriter last month at the SF Bay Area type-in. I got the impression that the difference isn't just cosmetic; the carriage seemed to purr and everything seemed better than on the standard Royal portables of the time. Do you think so? Or is it just that your counterparts in Berkeley did a very good job cleaning it up?
The Florida was known in Spain as the Patria, Amaya, and some other names; Florida was the export name to the US, and it is a pretty rare typewriter. This is one of the many machines derived from the original Patria design introduced in Switzerland in the 1930s. I'm e-mailing you a copy of the story about the Spanish company from ETCetera no. 89.
PS: Nat is right, because the Swissa is what the Swiss Patria was called after the war, and as I said, the Spanish Patria / Amaya / Florida is the same design.
DeleteGlad to hear you had a banner year, congratulations! Many more successes for the New Year.
ReplyDeleteThe Florida is a unique one, interesting that it has links with the Patria/Swissa. As to the Royal 10... words fail me.
Bill M.- Many thanks as usual for your kind comments.
ReplyDeleteNat- Nice job I.D.ing the lavender machine. Thank you. The Royal 10 was disgusting. I had to pick it up and take it out of a box and my fingers got caught up in all the crap underneath the machine. I felt so dirty!
Richard- Thank you so much for all the info on the machine. I'm going to forward some of it to the owner because they are interested. Royal de Luxes do clean up extremely well. One with little wear and tear does glide like silk however one with a fair amount of wear is clunkier and tends to have skipping problems. The escapement assembly is exactly the same as the Quiet de Luxe model and a slightly modified version of the older Model "P".
While I am a fan of these models, I don't care for the design of the escapement/spacing mechanism. It's problematic. I still can't believe that customer brought in the Royal 10 for me to look at. That's one for the books for sure. Many thanks again.
Ton- Thank you very much. As for the Royal 10, I'm still traumatized from touching it.
That Royal should be preserved as a wildlife sanctuary! Definitely a nice garden ornament. (wish you would open a shop in Perth, Western Australia!)
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your mother-in-law, but glad things are so busy at the shop. (I miss my Red Royal!)
ReplyDeleteThat Royal 10 looks toxic, like a leftover prop from a movie about nuclear holocaust. But the Ticker-Tweeter is fascinating.
Although she made it till 95, it's still sad when you have to say goodbye to someone you love. My condolences.
ReplyDeleteAnd how great that this was such a busy year! You're very blessed to still be doing the thing you love and get help in it from others around you. I would say enjoy it while it lasts, but my guess is that it might even become a bit busier now people have (re)discovered your shop.
It's so good to hear that you've had a banner year. I know that our local typewriter (semi-retired) repairman has been quite busy as of late. He had several machines lined up, waiting to be worked on when I picked up a couple he had repaired for me. I think he's busier than he wants to be!
ReplyDeleteBryan
kytyper.com
Just discovered your blog, it's great! I still have my old Royal Standard I bought in 1958 when I was 9 years old and I am 65 years old now and it is still in excellent condition! It was made around 1932 I think, standard Pica type, the style of the "W" and the "M" the middle bar goes all the way to the height of the letter and it has the older style "2" with the fancy tail on the end and the flat top bar "3", enclosed "4" with serifs. An interesting feature is that it has 5 extra keys located above the number row for tabulating the carriage up to 5 different tabs - - that is, the 1's column, the 10's column, the 100's column, the 1000's column and the 10,000's column. I have not seen one like that since I bought it many years ago. Must have been some kind of bookkeeping or accounting typewriter. I'd be happy to send you a picture of it but can't do so on here. Uses the Royal Standard ribbon.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing all the different machines and great to hear that people are still buying typewriters... hopefully to people who are really gonna use them! Do you ever wonder what a modern typewriter could be? (Not a laptop...)
ReplyDeleteIf you have a sec, I would love it if you checked out my idea for a new kind of typewriter and shared your thoughts.
Thanks!
http://www.quirky.com/invent/947871/action/vote/query/sort=ending_soon&categories=all