Typewriters in Nancy

Ok, it was a fantastic meeting. Here I share photos of the typewriters present at the October 3rd meeting of the French collectors' associations, held in Nancy in beautiful Lorraine. Please enjoy!

Moby Dick, made in 1948. It followed me home. Typosphere magic: RobertG of backspace does not erase also features a late Adler in today's post.

Moby Normal, 1930s

Adler flatbed writer, or rather, screenwriter

AEG Olympia Standard - now this is a puzzle for a collector. Anyone knows about this model?

The first Caligraph - or is it a Frister & Rossmann?

The second Caligraph - nice! As always, with the famous spelling mistake (it should be "calli")

high on my wish-list: The Chicago, with its intriguing typing mechanism

We type Chinese!

Contin, aka Remington 3, in beautiful deep blue

It's France, so plenty of Dactyle-Blicks

Yes!! I got this one! It's a Dactyle 3, equivalent to the Blick 7

The Dactyle company also labelled calculating machines

all right, there is one S.P. Blick

Ah, one Etoile with original spool covers - they are usually missing, although they can be replaced by a Hermes Standard 3 or 4 typewriter spool covers (which of course requires you own one)

A Hermes Ambassador, guinea-pig edition

Here is something special: it's the first Japy standard typewriter, a Model 3X. Even more special, this one still has "Remington-Sholes" written on the front (to complicated for me now to add the detail picture, this primitive blogger software is really driving me nuts, highly complicated to add one more picture in between - blogger.com software specialists, take wordpress as an example!!). The story goes that the first of the Japy series were still produced in the U.S. and only mounted in France. Something to follow up. Who knows facts?

A Japy 3Y, already labelled "BEAUCOURT - JAPY  FRERES & Cie - PARIS"

In Lambert paradise

... and one more

This L.C. Smith is special - according to the seller, it is one of the D-Day typewriters - wow!

ok, Mignon - NICE!!

Mignon 2 - would also be my choice

A model 3

and a Model 4 (with backspace key)

Monditype - I like it. And it followed me home

Ochydactyl - train your fingers till they hurt

Odoma. I find the design very classy

Portex Portex! with glamorous finishing

Yes!! top of tops - a Sholes & Glidden. It was sold in good old Vienna, when the Emperor was still young

It really is a privilege to inspect such a beautiful machine close-by

The Toshiba Typewriter

Also on my wish list - a TYPO. When is Christmas 2017? (I already got myself presents for 2015 and 2016)

Behold! A seemingly innocuous Underwood, but from the bottom of the case unfolds  a support for typing in the field. The perfect typer for a type-in with "bring your own table"

The Williams density at the meeting was uncanny - five machines spotted!! Maybe it's not rare after all? :)

I find the tab keys of this Yost particularly charming

and what a beautiful case with faux-woodgrain finishing

Are we done? Yes, for today. I still haven't given you the updates of other summer '15 weekends...

Lots of Used Typewriters in 1915

Mr. Gustav Freudenberg ran a shop specialising in used typewriters in Seefeldstrasse 19, Zurich, 100 years ago.  I came across this letterhead from 1915 which I want to share with you:

for FULL RESOLUTION, see here

Have a look! Can you count or ID them all? Which one would you choose?

Can you imagine walking in this shop and seeing all these old machines? It must have been a thrill - rather, it would be a thrill for us to beam back and be there. For the clients at the time, it was the occasion to score an old Densmore and the like. Practically minded people.

Well, ads tend to exaggerate. Nonetheless, all these machines we cherish and want for our collections were considered old already then. Strange thought...

that's it for today. happy typing, and see you soon - in the typosphere

more stationary for download, print and feed to your favourite machine? see here.

Evolution of the Pelikan

Pelikan typewriter ribbon tins are nice to collect. On second sight, there is an evolution in the number of pelican chicks over the years.

The pelican was the coat of arms of the Wagner family. As Günther Wagner (1842 - 1930) had three kids when taking control of the company  - founded by Carl Hornemann (1811 - 1896) in 1832 - he had three chicks added to the pelican. So originally, the pelican was feeding three. When a fourth child was born, the number was adjusted accordingly. In 1937, the number was reduced to two. After 2003, only one lonely chick is left in the nest. You can read the details here.

Here is some tins (later made of cardboard) from my collection to show this evolution.

This one looks older like the one below - I just bought it as a result of my research. It shows the official founding year of the company 1838 (April 28th, to be exact).

detail from the wrapping paper of Pelikan ink, Alfred R. Wepf collection 2015

detailed view:

and here we go down to one:

in detail:

That's it for today. As always, Happy Typing!

UPDATE 30.8.:
Read on the Pelikan brand story: http://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US_INTL.CMS.displayCMS.151367./pelikan-the-brand

Hermes 2000 and Japy 50

I was lucky at a German bay auction and got a Japy 50 portable. It came in its original case, quite used, a few things to clean an polish. Mechanically, it is sound, and alignment is still perfect, despite obvious heavy use in the past. The platen is rock hard, but hey, we can't have it call, can we.

What wasn't my surprise to see its serial number 20525. Why was I surprised? The Japy 50 is the same built as the Etoile. Both were Japy brands, but the typewriters were made in Switzerland by Paillard, and only sold by Japy in France. This was around 1934/35. Don't quote me on this, as research is ongoing. So what we have here are Swiss typewriter, traded in France. I will include them in my book on Swiss typewriters, of course.

Still, why was I surprised? The Japy / Etoile registered so far have serial numbers in the 50'000s and 51'000s. As this doesn't fit the Hermes 2000 numbering, it is safe to say that Japy got their own separate numbers. From the samples known so far we might deduce that "Japy" / "Japy 50" correspond to the 50'000s, followed by "Etoile" in the 51'000s. This would mean consecutive names.

Now, this new Japy specimen is number 20525. This would be a very early Hermes 2000 number - they started with 20'001 in 1933. I placed this next to a very early Hermes 2000 #22970 (built in 1934). And indeed: a perfect match.

So what we have here is an Japy with the original Hermes 2000 numbering. The very low number doesn't necessary mean Japys were sold as early as 1933. Rumour has it that Paillard used older stock for sale in France (for example, with the Hermes Baby S, sold ca. 1939, but with a much earlier construction). This might very well be the case here. It's fascinating to find a machine with a number so close to the production start, though.

The Japy / Etoile only differ in the round ribbon cover, the slightly raised top cover, a slightly differently shaped return lever, and the cover above the platen (including the metal paper support). The lids are identical with the ones used on the Hermes standard machines of the period. They are missing on my Japy, but I found a Hermes 3 to replace them (or at least borrow them for the photo shooting).