Zeta / Consul Standard Typewriters
Typewriters manufactured by Zbrojovka Brno, Prague Czechoslovakia beginning shortly after the end of the Second World War.  The company had manufactured Remington-pattern machines prior to the war, and began again as soon as practicable following -- with the intent of export sales clearly in view.  The company (state-owned and operated, since Czechoslovakia was Communist-controlled) was highly successful in its enterprise, and eventually obtained the position of being able to export machines quite nearly all over the world.

The machine seen here is a post-war ZETA 1501 Standard, serial number ZA-69893.  It dates roughly to 1949.  This was the machine that began to make a name for ZB, and the "Zeta" branding is a deliberate play on the company's name. 
by Will Davis -- photos by Tilman Elster
At right, a much later CONSUL 203, manufactured in 1967.  Serial number 1016.  This machine matches the late 1960's portables seen on my other pages in all of the decorative features, including the keytop shape and color, the style of logo applied to the front, and the shaping of the machine overall. The choice of brand name is also more Western in orientation; it had been used first in the late 1950's.

While production figures are not known, we know from the multitude of surviving machines that the 1960's was an entire decade of success for Zbrojovka Brno, and certainly a million or more machines of all kinds must have been built in this decade.  The run-up had begun in the late 1950's with export of standards, and with many more portables, and ZB finally assumed its place among the significant makers of typewriters by the mid-1960's.