1 of 1- OldGreyBeard
- Platen Punisher
Offline - From: England
- Registered: 25-9-2016
- Posts: 54
A tale of two typewriters
I spotted these two typewriters at a local auction yesterday, one made in West Germany and the other in East Germany. The typewriters were almost next to each other and both looked well made. Those Germans are good at engineering!
Two pics of each one, firstly an Olympia. I don't know which model it is, but the serial number is 242856. Odd keyboard with £, Å and Æ. Is this Swedish but why the £?
The pics were taken in a dim room without flash as you don't want to draw attention to yourself at an auction by appearing too interested in something.
And then a Erika Mod. 170. I couldn't find the serial number but it looks like a 1980s machine.
Both were well engineered and had very crisp letters. The Erika has a smaller character size.
I didn't leave any bids as neither is quite what I'm looking for (heavy duty portable with metal case, settable tabs etc) and there will be more typewriters to bid on. The Olympia also came with a Silver Reed 100 minus its spool cover & an Adler Tippa "naked" i.e. minus all of its case, which I thought was odd.
Interesting though especially as they ended up side by side so probably from the same seller. I forgot to check the seller id ticket.
In the 1970s & 80s East German & Soviet companies sold quite good value stuff in the UK such as Zorki rangefinder cameras, Praktica & Zenit SLRs, typewriters etc
- Uwe
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Re: A tale of two typewriters
The Olympia is a SM2, and the keyboard is Norwegian I would think. There are numerous reasons why it would have the Pound symbol, and it could be as simple as it was ordered by a Norwegian living in England who wanted to be able to write letters in more than one language. At the time there were hundreds of different language keyboards, and on top of that customers could special order specific keys. It definitely looks to have been well used, and it's the type of machine that I would buy given the opportunity.
I own a similar Erika and found that it took some time to get used to its action, but once I had given it a chance it was a nice portable to use. I can't recall off hand where the serial number is located on that one, but since you're not going to buy it you'll have to forgive me for not finding my Erika to verify its location.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- OldGreyBeard
- Platen Punisher
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- Registered: 25-9-2016
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Re: A tale of two typewriters
If the Olympia had been in better condition I would have made a bid but the worn keys and bent return arm put me off. There's always another auction. I go to most of these auctions anyway.
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Thread Starter- Rushwarp
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Re: A tale of two typewriters
Funny: the 1940 Danish Erika S. that I bought also had a £ sign added, (it was ordered that way originally from Erika evidently) but positioned to the first key of the top row.
I think Uwe is riight about the Norwegian keyboard aspect, as Danish keyboards usually have J K L Æ Ø for that row.
However, the Ø placed as first key of the top row seems very strange to me.
A vowel in the top row of number /symbol keys?
Then a blank key in the same row...AND a circumflex for French?
Probably a very custominzed arrangement for a multi-lingual user!
- OldGreyBeard
- Platen Punisher
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- Registered: 25-9-2016
- Posts: 54
Re: A tale of two typewriters
I agree that its likely to be a custom arrangement.
The blank key does have a character but the keytip has worn off. The character was a §
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Thread Starter