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Tuesday 26 August 2014

Remtor Portable Typewriters

I suppose Remtor portable typewriters could at best be described as a sub-species: rebranded Torpedo models made during the period of Remington's control of Weil-Werke GmbH's typewriter arm in Frankfurt am Main-Rödelheim from 1932 (as Remington Buromaschinen GmbH).
No doubt these Remtor machines are to be easily found for sale online on European sites, but in Australia they are quite unusual. So I've been surprised to be contacted by two Australian readers in the past fortnight, both asking about their Remtor portables (which, incidentally, may be for sale - contact me for details).
My own Remtor (above) was imported from Hungary, where it was originally sold (by Magyarországi Vvezérképviselet Irógép Korlátolt Felelõsségû Társaság, Budapest; it has a Hungarian keyboard, as Bence Sebestyén pointed out at the time), and I posted on it in December 2012. I found it an excellent machine to use, but it too is for sale now. It is a Torpedo 17, and was first marketed as a Deutsche Remington Junior in 1933. Alan Seaver has a lovely yellow-keytopped example of the Deutsche Remington in his Machines of Loving Grace collection:
The latest of the two which have popped up out of the woodwork in Australia is interesting because it says Remtor Junior on the paper plate and Remington Schrijfmachine Mij NV on the front right above the keyboard, which would indicate it was sold in Holland (but, I would think, unlikely to have been made there). I can't make out what it says on the shift and shift lock keys, but, like mine, it has a QWERTY keyboard:
The second Remtor to emerge in this country is even more interesting, in that it is a green-keytopped early model Torpedo 18 called a Remtor De Luxe. The keyboard might be Bulgarian? ("Veliko" is on the shift key.) This is the first time I have seen the 1936 model Torpedo as a Remtor:
Here are my Torpedo versions of this same model (also both for sale):

4 comments:

Ted said...

I've added Remtor as a marque of Torpedo in the Database. (:

RobertG said...

They do show up on Marktplaats.nl occasionally.
Think the shift says "Hoofdletters" (capitals), backspace would say "Terugtoets" (back key). Also has the "ij" key for Dutch and the stylized "f" for the Guilder (Florin). Definitely a Dutch machine, very likely emigrated with its owner to Australia (many Dutch did...).

Zoltan said...

Hi Robert,

Green-keytopped early model Torpedo 18 has CROATIAN keyboard.

You can recognize a keyobard as such if it has following letters: Č, Ć, Ž, Š, Đ.

Regards,
Zoltan

Anonymous said...

Hi, is the Remtor De Luxe Typewriter worth my keeping or in your opinion should I donate it to charity?
I have a model black with green keys.
Thank you.