Friday, October 4, 2013

Meet Rusty and Ollie

Rusty is a 1949 Smith-Corona Sterling; corroded, marginal margin settings, wonky line advance, White-Out be-spattered, hesitant keys, and a bit musty smelling. I nearly passed on it yesterday until noticing its wonderful font. While in the midst of typecasting with it today a Fed-X truck arrived with Ollie, a mighty fine looking Oliver No. 9. But here, let's have Rusty tell the tale:



Rusty ... he just makes me happy. Grimy, corroded, but with real soul.


Meet Ollie. His pencil holder swung the deal. Stay tuned.

10 comments:

  1. That's an odd character set. The caps look to be standard Pica, while the lowercase is clearly Vertical Script (usually found on Underwoods, occasionally on SCM's and at least once on a Lettera 22).

    That would be super-odd because those two typefaces would be *on the same typeslugs*, and I don't think I've *ever* seen that!

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    1. Ted, if you find any references to this or similar typefaces it would be great to hear about it.

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  2. Also, don't feel too bad, I've been enforcing a "no new typers" pledge on myself, yet as today is Friday, the yard sales have started in earnest. I stopped by *ONE*, and came out with a 1971 IBM Selectric 721 for $5. (talked him down from $20 after he plugged it in and it wouldn't start). It does work now that I've spent an hour on it, but the keys are still a bit sticky. :P

    (best-laid plans of men who like Typewriters)

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  3. You know, I'm not a huge fan of that typeface, as I think I have discussed elsewhere but the machine is certainly interesting. That is quite a good find!

    The Oliver though, is beautiful. I keep my Oliver next to my on my desk at all times, if anything because it just looks amazing there.

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  4. Congratulations! I very much like that script typeface. Hmmmm... 12-maybe-24... that's an idea I can easily get behind... hmmm...

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  5. As Ted said, that is a very odd combination of upper and lowercase characters. Not a pleasure to read, but character? You bet!

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  6. I think Rusty's typeface is fantastic! Very original, and reminds me a lot of my dad's handwritting. Congratulations!

    I too have been trying to reduce the collection... rather unsuccessfully (have only managed to bring myself to actually SELL three machines out of the "12 almost 20" I planned to part with...)

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  7. Congratulations! Both of those look like very nice typewriters. I really like the character of the Rusty's font. I've seen similar, but not quite the same as what you have.

    Every time I try to reduce my collection I end up having more -- as if those I sell or give away go about telling other abandoned typewriters to come to my house. I'm back up to near 50 while I know about 2 dozen is much more manageable.

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  8. Very interesting typeface, as everyone else has of course already said. I will have to look around and see if that typeface is in any of my Smith-Corona catalogues! And that Oliver is a beauty.

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    1. Will, if you discover anything about that typeface I'd of course love to hear what you learn.

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