RaRo Special Type 1928

Alfred Ransmayer & Albert Rodrian are an ever pervading presence when it comes to collecting typewriters. RaRo didn't produce typewriters, but the essential parts for typewriters to function: type. From a business that started off modestly as a sort of one person Berlin HP garage (only that the founder, Alfred Ransmayer, as an Austrian certainly enjoying a good cuisine, preferred his kitchen table to the garage), from a modest business founded in 1899 A. Ransmayer grew to 400 employees already by 1909. You can read some more on RaRo history here.


Marlize L. and her man on the ground, namely typewriter mechanic Ryk van Dijk in Friesland, were so kind to provide us - us as us in the typosphere - with extensive raw material in the form of several Ransmayer & Rodrian catalogues. These catalogues contain, in essence, lists of types samples produced by RaRo. The basic categorization of type is in regular type, i.e. type so common that RaRo would keep them on stock, and special type, which was produced on demand, and cost more. Later on, the catalogues also feature products from the thriving Keytop-Department.

We start off with displaying special type ("Sonderzeichen") from the 1928 RaRo catalogue. I cannot help but take an educational approach - the information is so overwhelmingly rich that it deserves to be served in taylor-made pieces. Of course all information available will be made accessible to the typosphere - some issues of copyright need to be resolved before hand, so please be patient.

But now, enough talked, see for yourself: Special type from the 1928 catalogue, symbols come first, the  keys to the numbers at the end. So if you want, take your guesses before looking up the solution. Enjoy!

Series continues next week.