Here is a find from a recent journey to a First Friday weekend warehouse antique mall. I was shocked to spot an early Oliver in the wild. I was even more surprised when it was priced reasonably enough to carry it two blocks to the car and bring it home :-)
This machine is really grubby, but probably cleaner than I would be after sitting around for over a hundred years. It appears to be complete. There is a serial number somewhere under all that dirt and grime. Either way, Ted Munk's database shows an 1897-1901 production run for this model.
Time is a precious commodity and one I have been short of in a flurry of work, business travel, Senior year college visits, and various band, orchestra, theater, and cross country events. I'll keep it covered in a safe place until one of those PowerBall tickets comes up a winner ;-)
Congrats! I think it's been a pretty long time since I've spotted a no. 2.
ReplyDeleteRichard, it was a double take sighting. Bonus: It was really cheap! The vendor hadn't bothered looking it up and treated like any other typewriter with a broken draw cord.
DeleteOoo, what a special find! It looks very impressive turn-of-the-century with the text in the casting too. (The 20th century, that is... :)
ReplyDeleteThe later Olivers have their own cast-iron-stealth-bomber charm. I do love the exposed mechanisms, but they would have been a pain to keep clean back in the day!
DeleteThat's a long trek carrying an Oliver. Looks like it will be rewarding to clean up. I've had some of my most satisfying typewriter puttering with an Oliver - hope you have fun with yours.
ReplyDeleteIt is a bit heavy, but not as bad an an Oliver 9 and neither comes close to an IBM machine ;-) I'll have time to play with it about the time both of my kids are off to college. In the meantime, I have a mostly restored Oliver 3 out in the open and various typeface fetish machines to play with. Thanks for the comment and sorry for the very long delay in responding.
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