Pages

▼

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Typewriter Shopfronts and Showrooms, 1907

This blog has published a lot about typewriter design and production, but not all that much about the actual retailing of typewriters. I know I am not alone in enjoying the mouth-watering experience of looking at images of early 20th century typewriter shopfronts and showrooms - often packed to the gills with gleaming new or refurbished typewriters.
Happily, I am old enough to have seen the reality of these shopfronts, albeit in much smaller versions. The first typewriter I ever bought, in 1965, was in just such a window display. 
The September 1907 edition of trade journal Typewriter Topics was a bumper issue, including as it did the magazine's annual trade review. The images of typewriter shopfronts in it make one want to jump in a time machine and travel back to the US of 106 years ago - perhaps in something built like this:
Look familiar?
You may well have that same urge, but I'm afraid you are going to have to ...
September marked the beginning of the "new season" in the US typewriter trade, and understandably it was one full of confidence and optimism for the future of the typewriter:
There were certainly many typewriters out there to sell (and bear in mind this is the US only):


at

1 comment:

  1. Steve Snow21 July 2013 at 21:07

    It's hard not to get lost in this post and imagine yourself wandering through one of the typewriter exchange stores, chock full of old Olivers and Smith Premiers and buying a brand gleaming new Oliver 5 or Remington 6 and taking it home to 2013 and dying of bliss!

    ReplyDelete

I do not accept anonymous comments.
I only allow comments under User IDs provided I know who that person is.
Do not ask me to evaluate typewriters.
Comments must be relevant to the post.
As the author of these posts, I make the decisions about what they contain - it is not open to discussion.