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| 1930 Underwood Standard Portable 469029 |
The paint looks a bit weirder in person, I think, than in photos. / Mercedes portables were licensed from Underwood. I can't wait to find out some day what German manufacturing precision did to this already excellent design. (!)
Sent from my new Underwood Standard Portable
Very reptilian, puts me in mind of an alligator's head. I like it though!
ReplyDeleteI see it now! It's now called "Alligator". :D
DeleteYou're going to have me on the lookout for an Underwood portable from that era, but probably a different finish option! You've got to carry a heap of beauty within you, Nick, to see it through that paint job! Carry on!
ReplyDeleteThe good thing is there are plenty of options to choose from! This is one of the rarer ones (probably the rarest, I hope it is) because you could choose from burgundy, black, green, and brown—all better choices.
DeleteI wonder if the workers in the paint shop had a Friday afternoon painting competition? The colours would have been stock but the finished pattern must be like fingerprints - no two the same. The decals have stood up remarkably well.
ReplyDeleteI would really love to see how the painting was done. I'm going to compare two woodgrain paints in detail in my post about 1920s portables. The Underwood's is quite different from the Royal's and I've seen it described as malachite as well as woodgrain.
DeleteAs I work on a wide variety of typewriters for WordPlay I've increasingly appreciated the four-bank, carriage-shirted Underwood portables. As you say, the fit and finish is excellent and so is the fundamental design. I just cleaned up a moldy specimen from 1948 that worked great despite the grime.
ReplyDeleteWhen did they introduce basket shift? Is it the earliest basket-shifted ones that you dislike?
I believe they stayed carriage shift until the early 1950s, with the Finger Flite models being some of the earliest ones with basket shift. The ones I dislike most are the latest carriage shift ones from the mid and late 1940s, although you say you had one that you liked…perhaps I should think of giving them another try.
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