I collect typewriters.
Well, that might be something of an exaggeration. As of this month, I have 2 typewriters, which I'm not sure counts as a collection, but I'm working on it. I'll rephrase:
I aspire to collect typewriters.
I acquired this beauty in a charity shop recently for a bargainous £5.50:
It's an Olivetti Lettera 22, which I believe dates it somewhere between 1950 and 1965. Clearly needs a bit of a clean-up, but seems to be in more than adequate working order. Lovely!
I'm afraid she is still somewhat overshadowed by her predecessor though, my 1922 Underwood:
My far-too-talented husband refurbished this puppy for my birthday a couple of years back and it's taken pride of place in my library (I mean, our 2nd bedroom) ever since. Aside from said husband and the cat, this typewriter is almost certainly the thing I'd run back into our burning house to rescue. Just look at it! It just breathes history, you can almost see the coded war correspondence!
I actually got a surprising amount of use out of my Underwood last year, mainly for our wedding. I decided it would be a good idea to hand type all of the seating cards, address labels etc. Having a DIY wedding seems like a really awesome idea until you start multiplying things by 100. Obviously, there's no delete key on a typewriter, so my wastage rate was extraordinary!
Totally worth it in the end of course, here it is making a stunning centrepiece to our seating plan:
Images from the wedding are by our dear friend
Tori Hancock.
