Monday, March 21, 2011

Typecast: A phenomenal flea market find


Overall, I would say things turned out pretty well. Although I know it's purely superficial, I am still hoping to find a parts Hermes Baby machine for the ribbon cover (or otherwise nick one from a fellow collector). I already contacted the Typewriter Museum in Lausanne, but I haven't yet heard from them so I doubt whether they can help... in any case,  we just might come across another of these, so I'm not overly worried. A great birthday find that I'm very happy with!

16 comments:

  1. Happy birthday! And what a fine gift for yourself. It takes a true member of the Typosphere to appreciate a bald typewriter for its usefulness. If Hermes are as common out there as you say (*sigh*) you should be able to chase up a cover soon. Or not -- no harm, either way, and you get to appreciate the Swiss engineering at work every time you type!

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  2. Congratulations and happy birthday!

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  3. Happy birthday! And I am very jealous of that lovely white color.

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  4. Happy Birthday! Excellent birthday surprise, I'd say. Man - you're lucky to be up where Hermes are as common as rain. (:

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  5. one more thing - I love that second globe!

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  6. Happy birthday and well found. I would have also had to inquire about the "common" gray baby... they are not so common here as you know.

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  7. Happy Birthday and congratulations for the excellent finds! The globe is beautiful!

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  8. Yes, "common grey Baby" indeed! I nearly did backflips finding mine. Hermes come up only rarely in local sources, and they are priced accordingly. No shortages of domestic brands, of course.

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  9. Happy Birthday and what a great find!

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  10. @Mike - Haha, I think "bald" is a much gentler way of saying it than "headless"! You're right, all it needs is a new wig and I am keeping an eye out so i can arrange the hair transplant asap. It will take a while to find the right donor, but no rush.

    Funnily enough, the grey Hermes Baby I derided as "common" would never have this problem... those gull wings are not going anywhere! (I've never seen any missing, at any rate.)

    @Ted: Indeed, a Hermes sighting is to be expected fairly regularly around here. Now, if you showed me a Smith Corona Skyriter...

    @Peter and Ruy: Aren't the globes lovely? I like taking pictures of them to flesh out my posts on the days when I don't find so many typewriters!

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  11. Lucky strike! And I am sure you will find a cover in due course, I have seen a couple of these "new" grey hermes baby + case. Happy Birthday + 1!

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  12. Happy birthday, and thanks for sharing your new addition.

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  13. That looks just like my Rocket (elite typeface). Mine has the hair but no cloak you might say. I'd prefer the way you found for easier carry.

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  14. Hmmmm... I've quite unlucky lately, I guess. A friend of mine has just found a nice, as-new globe (very similar to the the first in your post) for almost nothing (10 Euro)!

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  15. Hi, Adwoa. Here I am responding to a month-old post. What is the likelihood that you go back to old posts on the chance that there might be something new there? One of the beauties of the web is that information stays around forever and yet the sheer volume and freshness of new material hides much of that info.

    Anyway, I have a couple of observations on your cursive Baby. I just acquired a Hermes Rocket (in brilliant Orange!) with cursive type and it is a bit different from yours. It has the American keyboard layout and unlike yours with the clever(?) incorporation of the "1" (one) on the 2 key, mine has no "1" at all. Now the usual dodge for that is to type a lower case "l" (ell) but that is clearly not workable on a cursive machine. I have to type an upper case "I" (eye), if I remember in time. So, both of us have to use the shift in order to type the very common character, "1".

    Who designs these keyboards and what are they thinking?

    Yours,
    == Michael

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  16. Hello Michael -

    Indeed, I do revisit old posts, particularly when a reader leaves such an envy-evoking comment! A script Hermes Rocket in orange! That was a very lucky find.

    I have to admit I find the incorporation of the 1 on the 2 key a bit odd myself... I guess I'm fortunate that it was included at all, judging from your story. I do sometimes wish it had been done the other way around, since shifting to type 1 is not quite so intuitive. Perhaps the keyboards and type bars are designed separately and then reassembled randomly?

    Anyway, in response to your question on how to pronounce "Hermes", I'd like to reassure you that Mr. Perrier himself pronounces the "s", but not the "H" (as Frenchmen are wont to do!). Thus, it is definitely not air-may, but air-mez. Hope this helps!

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