WillsCollection2

PORTABLE TYPEWRITER COLLECTING 301

Advanced collecting: Newer portables

There are actually some modern portables that are quite difficult to find -- and some that are just about impossible to find. On this page, we'll show some of these and point out the fact that there are, indeed, truly rare portables that aren't ancient!

This machine was built in Czechoslovakia by Zbrojovka Brno, and would originally have been a Consul branded machine. However, it was sold in the United States, and carries the name Baldwin.

Not only has no other machine like this surfaced, but no other machine anywhere has been found of any kind which carries this name. It is the only one of its kind.

This machine may be better known to Europeans, who may recognize it as a Portuguese-made ABC 2000 series machine.

This one carries the Brother brand name, and is model XL-1016. Only one or two others have been seen, no information exists as to the distribution of such machines, and there is no indication anywhere that Brother sold these other than the existence of the few machines.

Perhaps not nearly as rare as the Baldwin above, or some others, but truly difficult to find if you're into name brand / model variants.

The historical description of this machine matches that of the Baldwin in many ways. This machine was made in Bulgaria, and would normally have been branded as a Maritsa. However, it was sold in the United States, and carries the name Bundy. This has been suggested as being linked with Bundy Typewriter of Philadelphia.

No other machines like this have been found, and there appear to be no other machines of any kind, built anywhere, carrying this name, either. That means that this is the only one of its kind --- in a manner similar to the Baldwin.

The Groma Combina was built only very briefly in East Germany. Less than 25,000 were built, and they are said to have been failure prone, which would by necessity reduce the number still around today. Very few collectors own one of these, so it must be on any list generated from the standpoint of difficulty in acquisition.

Citizen tried very briefly to market manual portables made by Konryu; both were located in Japan, although Citizen Business Machines had operations in the US. The Citizen Columbia XL is a very rare machine; only two are known to me, and the other one is not in the hands of any known collector. The Konryu-made machines can be found in Europe under a couple of brand names, and are themselves hard to find, but the Citizen variant for sale in the US is among the rarest modern portables of all.

The typewriter you see here is labeled Del Mar, and was made in Japan by Nippo Machine Company. The Nippo machines are quite unusual, although they do pop up from time to time; this means that they are not ultra-rare, but are indeed rare enough that they're limited to the collections of collectors that we could call truly advanced. Two body styles were built; this early rounded one, and a later squared-off and very modern one.

This Del Mar is the only example in crinkle paint of any Nippo known. It is also the closest to the highly rare Halberg, from which it's derived.

At present, it appears as if I am the only collector who has sought out Nippo machines in their various labelings and models!

The Halberg Traveler is shown next, as it is fitting; the Nippo machines were derived from it. The Traveler is truly rare; only three examples are known, or perhaps four. Two are not presently in the hands of collectors. Only made for a few years, and then sold to Royal and Nippo.

The Optima Elite was sold in some numbers in Europe, but was not sold widely at all in the United States. That makes this machine rare in a regional, or continental, sense, and is normally only acquired later on by collectors here. I was lucky to find one early!

This machine, labeled simply as the Presentation, was made in Italy by IMC. No model of IMC-built machine was well represented or sold in the United States; that makes this another regionally rare machine.

The machine at right was originally branded as an ABC 2000, but was sold here in the US by Sears. This variant, which can be found occasionally but by no means often, is the first of the Portuguese-made ABC line that includes major redesign and alteration. It's actually a better machine than the ABC 1001 series which preceded it.

The original Gossen Tippa is rather hard to come by, at least in the United States. Most collectors will find the Adler / Triumph variants first, as has already been shown on a previous page. This machine would then be a (more expensive) addition to those -- but what an addition! The styling and features of this machine have to be seen to be appreciated.

We are all aware of the Rooy Portable, in the sense that it is highly touted as the ultimate conceptual design as regards portability, and because it wasn't very successful. This combination of conceptual perfection and rarity make it still among those most sought after by collectors.

I must apologize for the lousy picture -- but this is a rare typewriter! Many name variants for early Czech-built Consul portables have been found, but this President has not been duplicated. Very likely, this was a circa-1958 or 1959 attempt to brand the machine for US sales, which did not work out.

Our final machine is out of order, because it deserves a bit of special attention.

This is a Montana De Luxe. This line, produced as licensed copies of the small Hermes machines, is not in itself common. Three body variants are known to exist; the first and last are uncommon, and this (middle) variant is actually rare. This is only the second or third one I've confirmed to exist. It is a transitional machine whose body is made partly of metal, and partly of plastic. Thus, we can say that the Montana line overall could be considered "only for advanced collectors," and that this particular variant is guaranteed to be so.

These machines represent that category which no collection MUST have, but which will be desired by those who have all of the basic and some of the unusual machines. Yes, they might be, in some cases, just name variants, but the heart of collecting is a combination of exploring the possibilities and finding the rarities, and name variants are always fair game for typewriter collecting discussions!

Use this button to examine how collecting of a subset works, by example.