There is a Royal P with vogue typeface on ebay for anyone interested!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Royal-Model-P-Vogue-Typeface-Typewriter/183724462077?hash=item2ac6d4cffd:g:ngkAAOSwTVNchcLx

Fascinating. In particular its partial provenance revealed by the labels on the travel case. Hopefully it will end up in the hands of someone who can actually speak the language and make some practical use of the Remington rather than ending up as a display piece.

missy20201 wrote:

Found an Oliver at our local antique shop. Compared to others I've seen it's a fairly moderate price, although the carriage doesn't move and the Q key is just barely misaligned. I wonder how much effort it would be to rig a new drawstring and bend the Q key back into place, + a new ink ribbon off Amazon for like $15. I've always wanted a batwing, even a totally unusable one, but one I could possibly get working is an interesting prospect

The drawstring on Olivers is very accessible. If the special hook on the carriage end of the string is missing, you can just tie it on and live without the neat easily-demountable carriage or make your own double-hook. All my Olivers have used a 7/16 inch wide ribbon instead of the standard 1/2 inch wide one, so they would go smoothly through the vibrator. Measure yours to be sure and then good luck finding them. Fixing the Q will depend on your skills.
 

I recently bought a 1956 Olympia SM3. I’m still awaiting some correct size rubber washers to get that one working properly.

I’ve since stumbled upon another SM3 locally, in a lovely looking pale green/grey, in a clean tweed case. It looks very neat, and in nice condition. The only stumbling block is that it’s a QWERTZ machine (which may be no stumbling block at all). How much trouble does it give users here to change between a QWERTY and QWERTZ keyboard, if any? Also, in your opinion, would the value of a QWERTZ SM3 be much different to a similar QWERTY SM3?

Jack Kerouac wrote:

How much trouble does it give users here to change between a QWERTY and QWERTZ keyboard, if any?

Hmmmm… I took this to mean switching between using QWERTY and QWERTZ keyboards as opposed to physically swapping the Y and Z keys and slugs, which as Mr. Höhne pointed out is not something a novice should tackle.

I have quite a few QWERTZ machines that I use and it takes me a paragraph or two before I stop making mistakes (this is switching from my native QWERTY keyboard). I don't think it's a big deal, and certainly not one that ever caused me to hesitate buying a machine that had a QWERTZ keyboard. I should add that I'm a touch typist, and I imagine that it would be an even easier swap for someone who's a hunt-and-peck typist.