1 of 1- Pete E.
- Typewriter Talk Elite
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- From: Idaho - USA
- Registered: 23-6-2020
- Posts: 2,140
Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe
I only have one birth-year typewriter in my collection.
This is my 1954 Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe.
It is in excellent working order, in very good original condition, and it a steady, comfortable machine to use...but mine does not seem to be a really fast machine.
But that just makes it perfect for contemplative typing days.
My case was really a torn and stained mess, so I repaired and re-painted it.
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- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 712
Re: Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe
Hi Pete
That is the exact same model as my the first typewriter (S/N A2563796) I bought in 1999. I was lucky enough to buy mine from the original owner who bought it new for going to college. The owner happened to be my next door neighbor and they were having a garage sale, so I picked it up for a whole $5.00. Although it sat in my garage for a few years just after I bought it, the machine saw 4 years of service while it was leant to one of our old church ladies who had just moved into the lodge. Letters to missionaries all over the world were typed on that machine.
We got the Internet in early 2000, but I couldn't find anything about this machine or other typewriters on the Internet. I don't even know if Google had been launched back then. Eight years later when Hilda passed away and went home to be with The Lord, the typewriter was returned to me so I did another Internet search and found that a wealth of information had sprung up in the interim. This prompted me to find one of the last remaining typewriter repair shops here in Southern Alberta and get the machine professionally serviced. Hence started my affair with typewriters.
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Pete E.
- Typewriter Talk Elite
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- From: Idaho - USA
- Registered: 23-6-2020
- Posts: 2,140
Re: Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe
William, that is a great story. Nice to know the history of your machines.
BTW...this same machine just was "won" on eBay for around $ 76. Think that is a good deal, now days :
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Thread Starter- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 712
Re: Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe
Hi Again Pete
I looked at that one, but didn't put a bid on it as I already have one. However, I am glad to hear that it's gone to a loving, caring home. Just for interest's sake, do you know if there is any added value to a typewriter, more over a pair of typewriters if you have what we call in the firearm circles "Production Run Mates" That is two machines with consecutive serial numbers? All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Pete E.
- Typewriter Talk Elite
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- From: Idaho - USA
- Registered: 23-6-2020
- Posts: 2,140
Re: Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe
William,
I just had a place-holder bid on that machine...but was not interested in actually winning it. I was expecting to see it go near $ 200 or so.
If I had won it for my max. bid, I would have cleaned and sorted it out and given it to a friend who simply loves my machine.
I did have the good luck to buy 2 Swiss M1929 Bern Luger pistols with consecutive SN's. That took me 15 years to accomplish and one was a "war horse" gun and the other a mint, original gun.
When I sold them off, I sold the 2 separately...as fellow collectors could not see past the 'war horse" condition of the one gun in the pair. They wanted both to be mint, originals.
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Thread Starter- Pete E.
- Typewriter Talk Elite
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- From: Idaho - USA
- Registered: 23-6-2020
- Posts: 2,140
Re: Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe
If anyone is looking for one of these...$ 80 out of Utah on FB Marketplace.
(No affiliation with the sale...)
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Thread Starter