Antique Typewriters

Today, whilst browsing our beloved InterNets and researching this fine fellow: The Elliott Addressing Machine

Elliott Addressing Machine

I came across this fine fellow, Martin Howard, owner of AntiqueTypewriters.com.

The Crandall, from Martin's Site

Such cool stuff! He seems quite passionate about what he collects, and is actively buying selling and trading typewriters and other office and printing related equipment. (I have to in all fairness say that I followed a series of links from Early Office Museum.com to find Martin’s wonderful site!)

He has an amazing collection of typewriters listed on his site, with photos, descriptions and even documentation of items from newspapers and trade journals! You know what I didn’t know that I learned from Martin’s site? Some early typewriters didn’t have keyboards! They used dials, or selector mechanisms instead. (Gods I’d love to take one of those things apart… The springs! The cams! The gears! oh my!)

We had a nice email exchange about collecting, about printing, about what we might want to buy/sell/trade with each other, and I was even able to inform him about a few pieces he had in his collection that he wasn’t sure of their purpose (yay! now everybody got their shout-out).

If you’re interested in nostalgia, office equipment, the industrial revolution, steampunk or fancy hunks of metal, do visit his site. Its impressive and very enjoyable! Be sure to check out the detail photos when they’re there. Some of these typewriters have the most delicate little flowers and filigrees painted on them! What ever happened to that kind of craftsmanship?