German typewriter Collectors Meeting, May 25 2013, Köln

Today I went to another meeting of the German typewriter collectors in Köln. It was nice to see familiar faces and to practice German while walking past the trunks of the cars, filled with all kinds of typewriters. Here are the pictures, so you get an idea. I had the impression that most sellers had to take the vast majority of their machines back home again. Only those who put "realistic" prices were able to sell some.

Breker Auction and HBW collectors meeting

Nowadays we're so used to buy typewriters online, that we almost forget how collectors used to get their machines about 15 or 20 years ago. Today, I had the opportunity to take a look at the past, at the Breker auction of office antiques in Cologne, Germany. It was my first time at an offline auction, and well, it was quite an experience!

According to some senior fellow collectors, in the old days Breker mainly sold typewriters. Now they sell almost any office equipment but typewriters. Of in total 707 objects, only 18 included typewriters. I wanted to have a go for the Pittsburg 10, but after inspecting it before the auction, I decided it wasn't worth the opening bid of 280 euros: it was rusty and defect.

One of the first lots under the hammer was an Enigma Type A (estimate 15.000-25.000 euros), which was sold for a staggering 35.000 euros. And this was only "one of the highlights"! Just one minute later we discovered why there were so many cameras filming the event: a real Apple 1 was up for sale (estimate 120.000-200.000 euros).

The Apple 1

The opening bid was 70.000 euros. Two anonymous phone-bidders were really going for it and within moments the 200.000 euros barrier was passed. The tension in the room increased with every increment of 20.000 euros. It was only at 400.000 euros (!) that one of the bidders had to pass. When the item was hammered down we applauded, hardly believing what we'd just witnessed. I wonder who bought the item!

Here is a video about today's auction of the Apple 1 (in English).

After half of the public and all cameras had left the room, the typewriters were up for auction. Three very nice colored Underwood portables were sold for only 100 euros: a Smith Premier 1 reached a hammer price of 240 euros; a beautiful Crandall remained unsold (opening bid 3.800 euros), and "my" Pittsburg changed owners for 750 euros. Way too much if you ask me. Here you can find the list of all realized prices. Scroll down to item 66 and onwards to see the typewriters.

After the auction, Jos Legrand advised me to drive to a meeting of German typewriter collectors at the local Tennis Club. He told me some collectors would sell typewriters out of the trunk of their cars. I expected to find some Coronas/Underwoods/Remingtons, and maybe (if lucky) some Blicks, Yösts or Hammonds. Well... I was wrong!

There were around 20 or 30 cars with each around 5 or 10 typewriters. I spotted a Blickensderfer, Oliver, Densmore and Franklin in the first car. That was promising! I started walking and could not believe my eyes:  a Columbia 2, a North's, a Fitch, a Gardner, all in open car trunks, barely protected against the cold German weather... The Fitch (my dream machine) had a 13.000 euro price tag. I wonder whether there were people walking around there ready to pay that kind of money out of their pocket.

Inside the Tennis Club I met Wolfgang Mock and Norbert Schwarz of Historische Bürowelt (HBW). I bought all 80-something past issues of HBW from Wolfgang and subscribed as a member (I guess I really have to improve my German now).

In the back of the room, three fully restored typewriters were standing on a table: a North's, an Emerson and a Sholes Visible, all in mint condition (or even better). After following Richard Polt's very entertaining and interesting blog series about the restoration of his Sholes Visible, I couldn't resist asking the owner to give me a live demonstration of the mechanism of this beautiful typewriter. Now I finally understand how it works! The owner, by the way, appeared to be Hermann Kerz, who has restored many typewriters to mint condition. Very impressive.

It was very nice to have witnessed a real offline auction, but I think next time I'll drive directly to the meeting of German collectors. I didn't know there are so many fellow collectors on such short driving distance. Ah, and next time, I'll definitely bring my camera...

Some online Mignon research

Last week I got the chance to buy 5 very nice typewriters from the former Scryption collection in Den Bosch. I already revealed one of them, the Imperial Portable. The second typewriter I want to reveal is the AEG Mignon. It is in perfect condition, all bright and shiny and almost like new. It has some extra decals, telling that it was sold by importer Oscar Markx in Amsterdam in 1929.

Normally, I don’t buy index machines. They don’t appeal to me as much as normal typewriters, look childish and are ridiculously expensive. However, there is one exception: the AEG Mignon. As far as I know, it is by far the most successful index machine ever, and many of the more than 350.000 Mignons ended up in the Netherlands.

Later, I'll post a typecast, pictures and video of the new Mignon machine. For now, I want to show some pictures that I found online. When searching online, I usually start at the online newspaper archives of the Royal Dutch Library. There I found an advertisement of AEG, dated the 4th of October 1929. It was written by AEG importer Oscar Markx, stating that his shop was located at Rokin 113, in Amsterdam.

With this information, I went to the online archive of the city of Amsterdam, and found the following great picture, dated 6th of October 1929 (two days after the advertisement):

You can see a car being rescued out of the water at the Rokin, while a crowd is watching. And, very nice, in the background you can see, on number 113, the white AEG typewriter shop of Oscar Markx! I really like the coincidence of dates (1929) of this picture, the advertisement and my AEG Mignon typewriter. Click here to see the picture in high resolution.

The combination of a news picture and a typewriter shop reminded me of the fire in the Hammond shop 4 years earlier (1925), also at Rokin, number 38. Click here to see the picture in high resolution.

The Rokin seemed to be a fine street for typewriter sellers, for not only Hammonds and AEG’s were being sold there, but also Adler had a shop, at Rokin number 10. I found 2 nice pictures of the interior of that shop at http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/ (see below).

Adler, Fles & Co, Rokin 10, Amsterdam 1913.

Adler, Fles & Co, Rokin 10, Amsterdam 1919.

By the way, when you search on “schoevers” on this last website, you’ll see some nice pictures of typewriting lessons with all kinds of exotic machines. My favorite picture is this one, below. How many typewriters can you identify?

Schoevers, Amsterdam 1916 (click to enlarge).

Typecast Klein Adler Typewriter

Here is a small typecast from my Klein Adler typewriter. I just bought it from the Scryption Museum. I've never seen a 93-year-old typewriter in such a good condition! The keys are a bit dirty, but only under the glass, so I think it's fungus. It still types really nice.

A Dutch biography about Levie (Louis) Fles can be found here.

Kanzler Typewriter

Meet the Kanzler 1; a very impressive German typewriter, build in 1904 (sn 2514). The one I bought (see pictures and video) still works, except for missing a ribbon and a platen knob. Each typebar has eight characters, controlled by a column of four keys and a shift. For an English explanation of how this machine works, see the Virtual Typewriter Museum. For a German history of the Kanzler factory, see "Die Geschichte der deutschen Schreibmaschinen Fabriken".