5 Jun 2014

Typewriter = status symbol

1937 Harrods 17 262567



The photos taken at a hotel turned out particularly well, as these next 3 show.








A Torpedo 17 can be seen in my blog header

Sent from my new Harrods 17

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations on getting such an excellent typewriter. I love the green. It has a great typeface too.
    Great Status Symbol!

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  2. "Foreign Manufacture" is an interesting touch! I imagine it put a lot of people off buying it (at that time).

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  3. Looks amazing.
    The 'foreign' is indeed odd (may have been preferable to stating 'German' though, back then). Quintessentially British Harrods selling foreign manufacture. Good grief!

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    1. Well, the only typewriters they ever sold with their name on them were foreign! They also rebranded Olivetti MP1s.

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    2. Dear me, you are right!
      In the thirties Harrods were buying either German or Italian manufacture...

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  4. This is a very nice and compact machine. I'm glad I had a privilege to type a few words on it. Bring on the flood of posts!

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  5. Glad you got home safely. Harrods, amongst the 'more money than sense' class, would have had massive brand value compared to Torpedo. Also, German Torpedoes... you cn guess why this island nation branded them Bluebird, post WW2. Artefacts from that period would be labelled "Made in England", "Empire Made" or to distinguish from these two, "Foreign Manufacture". This could cover any Euopean or Asian source but wasn't used in a perjorative way. US goods were, like now, labelled "made in USA". I'm looking forward to what you made of Wales!

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  6. You found yourself yet another beautiful typewriter! I love the design, and the ribbon is still easily accessible. The green is outstanding!

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  7. Holy SH!t Nick - now that is a showpiece machine!

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