Farewell Vendex, Farewell Bing
Vendex later became Vendex KBB after a 1999 merger with Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer and is apparently now known as Maxeda, a Dutch retail group that operates in
Europe, the Middle East and Dutch dependencies in North America. The firm
is mostly known for large Dutch department stores and other shop formats. In 2004 Maxeda was taken over by a consortium of
investors led by American private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Vendex's origins are in Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D), founded
in Amsterdam in 1887 by Wilhel mus Hermannus Vroom (1850-1925) and Anton Caspar Rudolph Dreesmann (1854-1934). KBB’s history goes back to 1870, when Simon Philip
Goudsmit (1844-1889) started a shop in Amsterdam.
THE BING No 2
Mark Adams's later post, on the Bing No 2, was timely because my own Bing No 2 had only left here yesterday, headed for a new home in Sydney. I had acquired it many years ago from the estate of the late Australian typewriter collector, Bruce Beard.
The Bing No 2 was designed as a "child's typewriting machine" in 1925 by Ludwig Reischl, born on March 28, 1881, in Passau, Lower Bavaria. He joined Bing in 1912 and also designed the Orga-Privat.
Made by Bing-Werke, Vorm Gebrüder Bing AG, Nuremberg, the Bing No 2 was described as a “teaching aid
typewriter” and was produced especially for export to North America. The
Bing Brothers company, founded in 1863 by Ignaz and Adolf Bing, was world famous
for making metal toys.
Ludwig Reischl
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That's a nicely looking case indeed - made me thinking: "oh! a fancy Olivetti DORA/Underwood 315 case" but I guess it may a bit smaller.
ReplyDeleteThat really is an early Vendex (nice too!), the later plactic seventies machines are very common here. (We had an orange Vendex at home later on.) Vendex was the store-brand for the V&D department store. (As well as the holding company name.)
ReplyDeleteMakes sense the Bing being educational/toy. Didn't know they're Orga also. Did know them as a major metal toy maker like Lehman or Märklin.
(Am feeling very much antipodean myself now, now you're offering for sale so many gorgeous machines ;-)