Friday, January 13, 2012

Museo della Macchina da Scrivere, Milan (2)


Typecast showing a bit of improvement, thanks to the TurboScan app for iPhone. Now I should just flatten the sides to avoid the distortion you see here... almost there!

Another look at the Everest corner; the middle shelf has one with an extra-long carriage.
The Olympia section, hosting an Oliver and Blick, too. The top shelf has an SG-1, Simplex, Plana, and another SG-1.
More detail on the Hermes typewriters, as well as Di Donato's prized Caligraph.

Hammond vs Varityper... a couple of rare birds keep each other company.
Never heard of a Littoria typewriter, so I thought it was worth taking a picture of. Might help someone some day...
I don't suppose you have seen this special edition Olivetti (probably a Lettera 35i), released to commemorate Italy's turn hosting the World Cup in 1990.
The Antares collection
Another typewriter I have never heard of and wanted to document - a Citizen from Japan!
Near the entrance, a few colorful and more modern typewriters - well, except for the Alpinas!
Not all of them are perfect - this turquoise Studio 44 has a bent frame.
Not surprisingly, the Valentine display is quite close to the reception desk! Perhaps more people ask to see it more than the others? The white color is fairly rare, I would think.

Finally, here is the link to the Museum website, and the video I mentioned.

12 comments:

  1. Fascinating collection! Are those a couple of Antares stacked on top of other Antares?

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  2. Very beautiful! Thanks for the post. I like your choice for typeface. Hermes Techno? I just received my third Hermes 3000 and it is Techno Pica, with the usual broken platen knobs. I have heard of Citizen typewriters and always considered them Japanese junk, after using a Brother in the 1980s, until I received my Olympia B12 by Nakajima which changed my perspective on Japanese typewriters. They can be nice typers. I really like the colors of the Citizen, especially the neat blue keys.

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  3. Lots of fun! Evidently he does have an "all-consuming passion," and so he and I are soul mates ...

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  4. Wow, great pictures! Thanks so much for posting. Some of those typewriters (or, rather, a lot of them) I've never seen before!

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  5. Great! That must be amazing there. I think the Citizen is exactly the one Rob featured on oz.Typewriter today.

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  6. just below the Citizen in the next pic is an Adler just like mine! Wish I could pick his brain about it. That looks like a very fun visit.

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  7. The "Littoria" is one of the many names attached to the SIM/MAS typewriters, as described by W. Davis, but especially researched by S. Slater, who calls them the "patriotic line", very fitting I think, because they were produced during Mussolini's reign, and reproduce Italian fascism's strategy to reactivate names from the Roman Empire: "Littoria" (based on the lictor) and "Augusta" (M. Rice presents it at some point on his blog).

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  8. @Cameron: Yes, indeed. Seems an odd thing to do, but there are few other options when space is limited!

    @Bill M: Indeed, this is Hermes techno. Sorry to hear about the broken platen knobs on yours! Hope you can find a workable replacement; I have seen many ideas being bandied about the Yahoo forums. I have not yet had the pleasure of trying a Japanese-made typewriter, although a few Brothers have tempted me in the past. Maybe one day...

    @Richard: Indeed! I am sure you two would have lots to talk about; I will send him the links to these posts and comments so he can have some idea of the typosphere. I tried to explain it to him, but he found it all quite strange indeed... not only do we use our typewriters, but then to upload the scanned text and have conversations that way? Hey, if I weren't in it, I'd be skeptical too :-)

    @Crystal: I always find visiting one of these museums/ collections to be like a Treasure Hunt... so many new things to discover!

    @Florian: And so it is! Thanks for bringing my attention to it; I learned a lot from the post.

    @notagain: You are right; the label below it indicates it was probably used by someone special, too.

    @shordzi: Thanks for the good information! I was wondering about that. Richard once told me the SIM machines were rebranded with many different names, hence the Edelweiss that was offered on Ricardo a couple of months ago...

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  9. Yay, a sequel!
    Very interesting machines, a number, I haven't chanced upon before. A Studio 44 with glass keys? That is definitely new to me.

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  10. It was just me, or I don't see any Triumph? I seem to have spoted a few Adlers but no Triumphs.

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  11. Yet another great photoessay. Love the blue keys on that Citizen.

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  12. Makes me feel like I was actually there!

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