$750 (plus shipping if more than 50 miles from Detroit)
Meet “Samantha,” a working pink Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter from 1961 that a Detroit counterculture writer brought along to New York as she dove into the downtown fashion scene.
Made famous Italian typewriter maker Olivetti’s Glasgow factory, this ultra-portable typewriter is stunningly gorgeous in its very rare original Olivetti pink, a color they called “coral” that is exactly as vibrant as it was when it rolled off the factory assembly line in 1961. Olivetti only produced this color in extremely small quantities because most high-end typewriter buyers in the 1960s preferred more conventional, less interesting colors. This one is one of the very few original pink Lettera 22s that have survived intact.
All of its keys strike well. Its carriage moves smoothly. Its little bell dings cheerfully at the end of each line. It even includes its original metal ribbon spools, which come loaded with a working black ribbon. An additional brand-new black ribbon will also be included. This beauty features a standard typewriterly serif font that is a comfortable 10 characters per inch (a size known as pica).
Further, this vintage typewriter has a standard QWERTY keyboard with a number of international keys including the Spanish N with a tilde, the British Pound, and a special key for umlauts (common in German and Swedish) and acute accents that is designed to type above any letter without needing to backspace.
One of the most famous typewriter models ever made, Lettera 22s have won design awards since the 1950s for their renowned Italian maker, and are even part of the permanent collection of famed museums like New York’s Museum Of Modern Art.
“Samantha” features touch control, so you can adjust the force needed to strike each key, and single-, double- and triple- line spacing options. With so much cool and utility packed into such a compact machine, no wonder songwriters like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen used and loved Lettera 22s.
Notable for a manual typewriter that is over 60 years old, this ultra slim 12”x12”x3” machine is in very good cosmetic condition as well, with its only blemish being a cracked right platen knob. This does not affect the functionality of the typewriter at all. Please see photos to inspect the visual condition of this machine.
“Samantha” arrives in a mod, square dark turquoise Olivetti typewriter case made of vinyl in the late 1960s, perfectly befitting the rust belt hippie turned Warhol-era New York art scenester who originally owned it.
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