I think it was September when I suddenly had the thought one day, clear as a bell: 'I want a typewriter. Now.' I went on eBay and started looking, and then I went on the internet and started finding all the blogs, and then went back on eBay, and I was like, 'I want ALL the typewriters.' 

Now I have ten. They don't all work. The Remington Quiet Riter has been commandeered by my boyfriend's 12yo son. An Adler Tippa was given to me by a friend who'd had it since 1972 and I love it for that but not really so much to type on - a bit springy, like bouncing on a bed. There's a 1949 Hermes Baby with worn teeth on the carriage rail, and A Swissa Piccola that I got for £5, with some kind of major problem under the carriage. I've just posted today about a problem with a 1962 Empire Corona Skyriter. And there's a 1949 Royal Quiet DeLuxe on its way from Edinburgh, which I bought because it's the machine my mother had from the age of c16, and that I grew up with. Oh, and an Empire Aristocrat (like a Hermes Baby) that I'm going to give my bf for XMas. The ones I really love and use are my Olympia SM3, Olivetti Lettera 32, and Japy Personnelle. (Thinking about it, they all came from the same place, which is an actual shop; they all needed a bit of cleaning up but nothing at all major, and of course I had a chance to try them all first...)

That's not too many, is it? Because my other half's beginning to get a bit disgusted. :/

Last edited by KatLondon (10-12-2014 19:42:33)

Ztyper, Stan Laurel bought an SM4 when they came out. There's a picture of him in his old age smiling happily with it. And I LOVE the SM3 but it has the smallest sharpest elite type I've ever seen. I'm watching a Splendid 66 at the moment. (Nooooooo....!)

Th Hermes, I know, it was the first one I bought and I love it, but the carriage just goes whizzing because of the broken teeth... you can only typoe on it if you're prepared to move the carriage back into place three or four times a line. I know this thing about the US and the typewriters - 'proud to buy American' - but so many designs were licensed to companies in other countries. Didn't someone in the US make a Hermes Baby-style typeweriter? The Aristocrat in the UK, for example, is the same. Anyway, I wsa overjoyed to find the exactly right Royal in the UK - I just wanted to get that childhood one... and my mother is experiencing a vicarious thrill just looking at the pictures of it! 

 

The Splendid 66 and the SF share identical machine cases ("bodies"). They differ in that the 66 has a ribbon colour selector, a feature that the first generation SF did not have.

Ah, so you have a SF De Luxe, which is a different machine from the SF. It's very important when discussing SF-based models to specify the De Luxe part of the model name for that very reason. 

 

Hi z. I haven't even got the Royal yet! A friend picked it up for me from the eBay seller (it's hundreds of miles away); I organised the shipping through a courier, and he's going to pack it up and get it to their depot tomorrow. Oh the suspense. It's a 1949 QDL, same as my mother had, so it's the model I grew up with. It's a strange feeling, as the case looked far more familiar in the pictures - a real Eureka! - & I had to look hard at the machine to ascertain that it was the same one - I think when I was a kid it was just the Ur-typewriter, a lump of authoritative (& slightly authoritarian) grey metal. Really looking forward to it arriving. I sent my friend very through packing instructions.

As for the Olympia, I love my SM3, which is also a De Luxe. Does yours not say 'De Luxe' in the segment? We shall see about the other one, we'll have to see...