Repartee wrote:

Because the machine is located in Romania. I should have mentioned that rather than leaving it to chance that the reader would notice the location. 

Ah, that does make it a little unusual then, but typewriters do travel, and undoubtedly there are many reasons why a QWERTY keyboard would be found in Romania. QWERTZ keyboards, for example, are actually fairly common in my area. One of my favorite typewriters was manufactured in Germany, originally shipped and sold to someone in Namibia, then at some point it traveled back to Germany, and after an unknown number of owners finally ended up with me and now resides in Toronto.

I took my 1955 Remington Quiet-Riter to Turkey for a year when I was in the Air Force. The case got crunched onthe shipping back, but it saved the typewriter inside. Still a good typer!

That appears to be a rebranded third-generation Hermes 3000 - an arrangement I've never heard of before... So call it 35 years later!

Here, have a look. 

Last edited by Uwe (22-6-2016 10:48:41)

Yes, second generation Hermes 3000.  In theory, the Japy is the original and the Hermes the re-branding !  Japy had a close relationship with Hermes for many years and by the 1960's almost all of their range were Hermes built under licence.  The exception was the flat portable which was the Patria design rather than the Hermes Baby clone that you would expect.  By the late 1960's, Hermes had taken the Japy factory over and transferred production of the 3000 there.  So the 3000 had now become a Japy product.  Until Japy was completely subsumed into the Hermes organisation, I guess that they produced and sold some 3000s under their own name - and this is one of them.  In England, Japy products were often sold as 'Beaucourt', including the Patria portables and an office machine with a lock that you could operate to prevent someone using the machine.  The office machine had a style all of its own but inside the casing it was a Hermes Ambassador !

I would give my right eyetooth to have a Russian typewriter.  In fact, I have a smattering of Russian in my blood from my Dad's side.  I've also heard that Russian stuff was built to last (I'm not sure where I got the idea from, but I would at least like to have a Russian-made typewriter).  The closest I have is a Czechoslovakian Consul portable typewriter made in 1950.  That one is made very well.  When I got it, the variable line spacer was missing, so I fashioned one for it from an old Smith-Corona pull-type variable line spacer.  It's a push-type on the Consul, but I got it to work.  Next time you get the opportunity to get a Russian typewriter,  G-R-A-B   I-T!!!!!