Typewriter sightings in the Austrian Alps

A.D. 1956: The crowd is stunned by the arrival of a hitherto unknown flying object 

Patria Swissa family

A few examples of this by now rather famous typewriter family.

My fascination with these truly Swiss typewriters continues... the more details I discover, the more interesting the story gets. Last year I visited the original PATRIA factory in Pieterlen. This "family" has been researched by Will Davis and was later on covered in ETCetera. I keep discovering foreign variants, for example the French "TYPO" or the English "BYRON" (made in Nottingham, and yet another chapter in the fascinating company history as discussed recently by Richard and Robert - great cross-references, the typosphere is becoming a very useful online compendium of typewriter history). Max Bill, who designed the round second shape of this portable, must have been proud of his highly successful product.

Just in case ...

WHAT'S IN THE CASE? This is from the series "Essential tools for typewriter hunters, both male and female". And here it is: a field quiz as preliminary to a Field Guide to Typewriter Cases and Hoods. Train your typewriter hunter's eye to identify a typewriter even before you show interest or start haggling with the seller. Surprise your friends and family with your typewriter case identification skills! You can get the correct answer by clicking on the respective photo. Good luck!

  
So, how many did you get right?

The thrift store on the other end of Switzerland

Some typewriter sightings in Basel:

Hermes Standard 6

typewriter in context

a brother LW-30!

And finallly - yes, you won't believe it: a ROVER 2000. And you know what: I bought it!

still snowing outside

  

Marvellous pencil sharpeners

Here is some pencil sharpeners from the Alfred R Wepf collection. Alfred is only the occasional pencil sharpener collector. He is more into typing.

First comes the "Jupiter" 1, produced by Guhl & Harbeck in Hamburg, Germany

Elegant and functional design

Plus it works! See more technical details at http://www.jupiter-spitzmaschinen.de/3.html

Here comes the Automatic Pencil Sharpener, made in the U.S.A.

Add caption

And here comes a Play-Me pencil sharpener from Spain!

Nice details!

they put quite some work in this side ornament

But here is the King of Kings: IDUNA, made by IDEA from Germany

IDUNA logo. The machine was made in Leipzig. "D.R.P." is short for "Deutsches Reichspatent", and patent n° 341369 was issued on 30.9.1921 to Martin Berndt of Leipzig-Eutritzsch for a "Schreibstiftspitzmaschine" (patented as of 8.10.1919) 

An excerpt of DE341369

Here is the US patent (US1504019 of Aug. 5, 1924)

strong and solid

One can choose the fitting pencil size

The upper cylinder then moves right or left accordingly

Simply the best! Usually it is mounted on a wooden plate, which we left out from the photo.