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Collecting Portable Typewriters
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click here to reach this site's main index page.
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..some various topics, covered by the author of the site for collectors of portable typewriters
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by Will Davis
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I'm very often asked questions by people in e-mails... some are collectors, some are beginning collectors, and some have machines they wish to sell. Others just want to know if something's on the site and they just can't find it, or if something will appear. Here are some frequent questions and their answers.
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"What's your website all about?" It's simply about portable typewriters, no matter the age. You can use the information presented here in any number of ways; there's model-specific and historical information presented, all with illustration. Every kind of collector will find a different kind of use for my site.
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"How do you find all this information?" I keep very busy. I look absolutely everywhere for machines and data, and combining hands-on experience with information from various printed sources, I come up with articles about machines, product lines and companies. Multi-lingual capability helps; I even learned a little Czech when researching the CONSUL line. Some of my research methodology remains, by necessity, a secret.
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"Why don't you appraise machines?" Well, that's simple-- I actually will do that, only in person. Which means that I don't do it that much. Sure, I watch auction sites all over the world and I do see what machines generally sell for, but there's just no telling the actual condition of a machine I can't have in my own hands. So, internet appraisals are OUT.
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"Why are there so few American-made machines on your site?" Again, that's simple -- Information about US-made machines is a whole lot easier to come by than information about foreign made machines. I do actually own a bunch of US-made machines, and as time permits plan to add some into my site. But there are lots more truly rare and hard to find machines (made elsewhere) and so they get the research priority. (This has no bearing whatsoever on what I think of US craftsmanship -- I'll always tell people that the best portables to type on are the 1950's SMITH-CORONA desk models, period. Trust me; I do lots of typing on portables.)
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Above, SMITH-CORONA SILENT, 1950.
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"I think portables are neat but don't know where to start collecting.." Here are a couple plans of action. One idea would be to simply collect a favorite brand... If one were to start with a SMITH-CORONA SKYRITER, for example, he could then get a set of 1950's units of the same line by adding a CLIPPER, STERLING, SILENT or later SILENT-SUPER.
Starting with the same SKYRITER, another direction would be to get the machines of the same basic kind but earlier and later. The SKYRITER was developed from the earlier CORONA ZEPHYR, and later developed into the SMITH-CORONA CORSAIR and COUGAR lines. All of these machines share the same design of type-bar mechanism, but as they get newer they add features, and eventually convert to plastic bodies.
Yet a third methodology would be to obtain machines competitive with the SKYRITER. The predecessor ZEPHYR was developed to compete with the HERMES BABY, so one of these could be obtained. Later, other small, flat, competitive machines were introduced, and there are very many which appeared in the 1950's and 1960's.
There's no limit to the ways in which collectors go about collecting....in fact, I do all of the above!
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Let's examine collecting methodology as related to Smith-Corona machines.
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It's a good idea to figure out just what each product line consisted of at any one time. Remember, they're kinda like cars... there are small cheap models | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||