Typewriters in Paris II: The ones we came upon

 

Entering the Communication collection at the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris 

 

Very early Remington, with decals for the most part nicely preserved

The Remington 1 (dated 1873) is actually a Sholes & Glidden, as you can see here. 

 

AWERTY - now there's a keyboard layout I haven't come across yet. An error, perhaps?

 

Speaking of inscrutable keyboard layouts... don't even get me started on the Hammond :)

 

The folding Corona 3; ever popular even in Paris. 

 

Doesn't get much more unusual than the Lambert; as for most of these typewriters, I was glad Mr. Perrier had already given us a close look and demonstration of their mechanisms in Lausanne. 

At the flea market, this Olivetti M40 wishes all a "Happ Hour".

Underwood standard (with plastic keys, oddly enough) livens up a stationery store. 

Hard to see, but there's a Royal typewriter lurking in this window, beside the books and underneath a taxidermied crow (don't know and didn't ask... a reference to The Raven, perhaps?).

Typewriters in Paris I: The ones we sought out

This poster looks promising... or so you would think. Number of typewriters seen = 0.

The first typewriter we spotted at Vanves: a Cyrillic-keyboard Hermes Baby.

This was followed by an AZERTY Olympia SF; ordinary pica typeface.

Finally, a French machine in France: this Japy Reporter is of a rather recent '70s vintage, though, hence the plastic. The seller swore vehemently that it worked perfectly, and I nodded politely, not bothering to point out the twisted ribbon and the crooked ribbon cover.

We moved on to a street garage sale, which seemed more promising - and delivered rather nicely, too. A pretty, mint green, mid-'50s Hermes Baby, even with an extra ribbon. That dratted azerty...

Hermes Babys seemed popular that day - here, a '30s Featherweight.

That was about it for the interesting (and seemingly functional) manual typewriters. The rest were either electric, like this one...

... or so poorly kept there was no way on God's green earth they had typed a word in decades...

... or toys like this Petite Super International typewriter, but still presumably functional, unlike...

... this Japy ceramic typewriter ashtray, which, while it tied in nicely with the Reporter we spotted earlier, was definitely not about to be used for typecasting anytime soon. And even this had an azerty keyboard - remarkably consistent!

A few typewriter sightings, some days late

I have been back from Paris for a day now, and faced with the grey skies and constant drizzle of Geneva, I look back on the trip with fond longing. It is not very far, really, and so it is almost difficult to believe the speed with which I have found myself back at home, dreading another Monday, barely having had the time to unpack, review my many pictures and travel stories, and all the souvenirs I brought back.

I thought to myself that I really must write something for the blog today, and even though I have left it too late to put up a proper typecast, I remembered I took pictures at the Geneva market a couple of weeks ago that I have not yet shared, so here they are. There is much to be shared about the trip to Paris, some of it even concerning typewriters, but not as much as I had hoped (is there ever?).

Breathtaking typewriter finds have been few and far between in Geneva these days, so you will excuse this rather dull round-up of plastic-bodied azerty Remingtons and re-branded Brother typewriters...

Was Paris any more productive? Well, let's just say I made sure to pack in 7 (yes, count 'em) visits to brocantes (antique markets), vide-greniers (literally attic-emptiers, this usually means a neighborhood-wide garage sale), and marches aux puces (flea markets). The results were... well, interesting (in that not-entirely-positive sort of way). You'll see.

Back to Geneva, I'm sad to have missed the market for the past couple of weeks (due to train travel) just as things were beginning to look interesting, but I'll make up for it this Saturday, weather-permitting. The fact that we sighted all five of the typewriters in this post in one day is very promising indeed, because for just about the whole summer, we were fortunate if we saw even one per week.

A Hermes Media... but of course :-)

The next post will be on typewriter sightings in Paris - there weren't overly many, and to lift my spirits I did a lot of stationery shopping (papeteries are as ubiquitous as pharmacies and news stands) which turned out to be quite productive as well and will be written up in due course.