Well - to my untrained eye Underwood 315 could be treated like a print wheel in electric typewriters. Just a body swap and you can have your Valentine with any charset you can find a cheap Underwood with. Yes - most likely a bit more fiddly job than print wheel change... :)
The hate must run deep - there is one Valentine on UK ebay now with £65 buy it now price (that includes delivery) sitting already for 24 hours with no buyer. Yes, there are a few issues: crack in the case, missing ribbon spool covers (personally I would call them either "gondolier's hats" or "nipples" ;) ) but the brushes are included which is not common. If I hadn't mine already I guess I would be buying that one despite its flaws - hey, but it is just me.
Thanks - I saw sort of the Vader-esque quality and distant hints of Robby The Robot (of the Forbidden Planet movie) in the frontal view so I tried to catch that attitude. And somehow it seemed in line with the blog's colour scheme :) I love that typewriter though.
I never realsied this about the Valentine... very interesting. There is no doubt about how pretty it looks but as to its typeing action... far too light. She looks like a tart and types like she's wearing wobbling stilletos. .. There is one in a display case at the Barbican Centre (London) being all fancy and chic... except whoever put it in didn't notice there is a keypad missing .. the X ... I wonder if the keypads are interchangeable?
No two typewriters can be so different yet so similar.
ReplyDeleteFrom the outside, Valentine represents avant-garde design while Dora/315 represents no-design. Typing action, of course, is another story.
Well - to my untrained eye Underwood 315 could be treated like a print wheel in electric typewriters. Just a body swap and you can have your Valentine with any charset you can find a cheap Underwood with. Yes - most likely a bit more fiddly job than print wheel change... :)
ReplyDeleteI think that's why collectors/typists have a love/hate thing about the Valentine - the Raleigh Chopper of typewriters.
ReplyDeleteThe hate must run deep - there is one Valentine on UK ebay now with £65 buy it now price (that includes delivery) sitting already for 24 hours with no buyer. Yes, there are a few issues: crack in the case, missing ribbon spool covers (personally I would call them either "gondolier's hats" or "nipples" ;) ) but the brushes are included which is not common. If I hadn't mine already I guess I would be buying that one despite its flaws - hey, but it is just me.
DeletePS: love the menace you wrung out of the Noiseless in your banner!
ReplyDeleteThanks - I saw sort of the Vader-esque quality and distant hints of Robby The Robot (of the Forbidden Planet movie) in the frontal view so I tried to catch that attitude. And somehow it seemed in line with the blog's colour scheme :) I love that typewriter though.
DeleteI never realsied this about the Valentine... very interesting. There is no doubt about how pretty it looks but as to its typeing action... far too light.
ReplyDeleteShe looks like a tart and types like she's wearing wobbling stilletos.
..
There is one in a display case at the Barbican Centre (London) being all fancy and chic... except whoever put it in didn't notice there is a keypad missing .. the X ... I wonder if the keypads are interchangeable?