It is always about the machines when you are in a repair shop, yes? Well, I’m not so sure the machines just sidle into the shop without a person supporting them. As you know, I love my customers and damned if they don’t love their typewriters. This week, one of my favorite typewriter collectors from Astoria brought a friend. And did I get a treat.
Not only did he share one of the first folding typewriters (it looked as if it had been made in a local machine shop) and complete with a nifty leather case, he enthralled me with a rare collectable. This seemingly boring, and a shade rusty, Smith Corona Eighty – Eight Secretarial from the 1950’s is a pretty common machine.
That is until you notice the Princess Leia ribbon spools giving this machine the ability to type with regular inked ribbon or (on the side) carbon single pass ribbon for a most clean and crisp print.
OK, so that is not the real reason I’m totally captivated with this machine . . . it has Fraktur typeface! How many typewriters have you personally held in your sweaty little palms with Fraktur glowing from the type bars? Heck, how about finding Royal’s Vogue typeface on a typewriter in the wild.
Ok, ok just calm down and let this vision of a rust duster fade into the distance as it returns to Oregon territory. All the while remembering I actually had a pretty darn rare machine in the shop, even for just a few moments.
Oh, and according to a label under the ribbon cover it looks like (many, many years ago) this typewriter was serviced by our friends at Bellingham Business Machines.
I hope he lets me restore it (hint, hint).