Isn't this a handsome typewriter? Imagine how pretty it would have been when it rolled off the assembly line in 1904, with bright blue and yellow pinstripes, glossy paint, and intact golden decals.
The Monarch is a machine that most collectors ignore, because it's "normal": a frontstrike, four-bank typewriter with the usual accoutrements. It was also made for several decades, so you may think it's common.
But in my experience, you don't see Monarchs every day, especially not early ones in good condition, such as this #437 from the first year of production, before a backspacer and bicolor mechanism were introduced. If memory serves, I bought it from the great Tony Casillo about 20 years ago. I offered it for sale in May, but no one bit. Now, however, it is going to a woman in Cincinnati who wants to type a journal and recipes. I'm glad that this 122-year-old typewriter is going to see action again.
The Monarch Visible was produced in Syracuse by Remington, although the Remington name does not appear on the earlier Monarchs. At the time, Remington and the other members of the Union Typewriter trust were insisting that understrokes or "blind writers" were the proper way to type. But visibility was really the wave of the future, so they created the Monarch as a way to compete with the up-and-coming Underwood and other visible designs.
Will Davis tells the story:
Union Typewriter was a gigantic trust that controlled Remington, Smith Premier, American Writing Machine (Caligraph/New Century), Yost, and Densmore. Just before the turn of the century it became apparent that visible writing machines would become important in some way even if they did not take over; the four Smith brothers, whose Smith Premier company they had allowed to be controlled by Union, wished to produce a visible machine. When Union made it clear that it was setting up an entirely new machine design to be made by a completely new satellite company (Monarch Typewriter Company,) and that all the other makes would retain their 'blind writers' for the time being, the four brothers sold out their interest in Smith Premier, moved across town and built the L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Company.
L.C. Smith was a big success, and of course eventually joined Corona to create Smith-Corona, a company that still exists today as a label manufacturer. Monarch had a smaller niche, but Remington kept it going for quite a while, and continued to use "Monarch" as a name on portable typewriters into the 1970s.
Having recently cleaned and lubed this Monarch No. 2, I can confidently say that it's better than an Underwood and every bit as good as an L.C. Smith. First, its visibility beats Underwood easily: nothing intervenes between your line of sight and the paper.
Like the L.C. Smith, the Monarch is a basket-shifted machine (the type basket moves up when you shift). This is a quick and easy sytem.
When you pull the paper table and another panel forward, you can look down onto the tab rack and margin rack. This specimen has only one tab stop remaining; they're easy to pull off, and presumably there were originally several more. The margin rack offers one left margin stop and two right margin stops, so that you can decide how far in advance you want the bell to ring. The stops are mounted on the body of the machine rather than the carriage, which means that the left stop is on the right and vice versa. (This is also true on Underwoods.)
All the hardware is well-made and well-finished. The carriage return lever is clearly superior to the Underwood's stubby little hook. The carriage purrs nicely as you return it and rings a lovely bell as you near the end.
The ribbon spools on this typewriter are unique, but the concept is similar to Royal's: when the ribbon is unwound, the U-shaped piece will descend and trigger the reversing mechanism. A tongue with two sharp hooks on it extends out from the core of the spool to grab the end of the ribbon.
The paper fingers on this early Monarch are another unique design, and not a great one. In order to tuck the paper under both paper fingers, I have to move them both to the center; then I move them back out to the sides. If there's a better way, I haven't discoverd it yet. (Having more than two hands would help!)
Next time you see a Monarch standard in good shape, give it some respect and consideration as a serious writing machine. I think you won't be sorry!
