GRADUATE

We were fortunate recently to acquire another Nippo family member, this time labeled as "GRADUATE" in the oldest paint and body style.  The machine had more paper with it than most and we hoped that some breakthrough would occur, particularly as regards date of manufacture.  As usual, we're left with more questions and speculations than answers!
The machine is serial 602777 and is not unusual in any way when compared with the Del Mar, the Atlas or the Elgin Collegiate in my collection.  Once again, the wide range of names applied to these machines comes to mind; certainly, this was a machine which was offered for sale in any number of ways and was custom labeled.  Later on, Nakajima would take this idea to a much more extreme and much more profitable end with major production batches of its machines in custom body styles and colors for large typewriter manufacturers in Europe and the USA.
The paperwork with the Graduate clearly shows that the machine was distributed by Fairfax Distributing Co., 1328 New York Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.  This company's history is presently somewhat nebulous although it does appear that it was later involved in some way with a number of prominent jewelers or distributors of jewelry.  This connection is of interest since we also have the Elgin Collegiate, thought to be linked with Elgin Watch Company (and a later subsidiary) in the collection; one wonders if Fairfax Distributing were dealing with both.  We're again reminded of the myriad ways in which typewriters were brought into the country and sold.
The red folder is an instruction manual, while the larger rectangular one is more of a brochure - although it does have operational features on its rear, as seen at right.
The name "Graduate" may seem vaguely familiar to typewriter enthusiasts, and it should; Singer Sewing Machine Co. used that name on Holland-made relabeled Royal machines from about 1961 on.  (Singer never manufactured a single typewriter; it acquired rebadged machines from Royal, Smith-Corona and Remington-Rand.)  It seems unlikely that this Japanese-made, Fairfax distributed Graduate would have been made during the time Singer was using that name so that one would assume it dated from the very late 50's or around 1960-1961.  Still, agonizingly, these machines appear almost too new for that date range and we're left wondering more things than we're sure of.  But that's the hobby, isn't it?
One final observation regarding the Nippo machines is worth including.  In the brochure included with the ATLAS, the remark is made that the machine was the highest-production typewriter from Japan.  This would mean (if true) either that Brother hadn't started production yet, or else that Brother hadn't really gotten going yet.  Since Brother entered the market in 1961 our date range assumption for the Nippo may well hold.  Of further interest is the fact that when Brother did launch production its small machine followed many design principles found in the Halberg-Royal-Nippo family (and other small machines) but the machine was slightly larger, slightly more substantial and frankly slightly better --  enough so that it took off to a brilliant sales career.  Did Brother pattern its machine off of this only-other Japanese-made machine?  We are left to wonder.