Thursday, April 21, 2011

Italic Italian






A comparison of the prewar and postwar Everest portables shows that some thought was given to continuity in styling. The K2 is certainly more streamlined, but retains the shape of the opening in the ribbon cover, the "hips" that give Everests their distinctive look, and other details.



Red rivals of the '30s in Italy. Which do you like better?




Here's a somewhat later Everest that showed up on eBay a couple of years ago. Wow.








12 comments:

  1. I lived in Italy for a number of years, years ago, and recall seeing a machine very like this. Amazing, too, how just the sight of something like this--I'm sure there are commercial designers who jump all over these sorts of associations--can spark such nostalgia of not just a personal but also historical and geographical natures. It also reminds me pointedly, as the book is preoccupied with such nostalgia and memory, of Umberto Eco's "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana," which I recently pulled apart and examined at my blog.

    Thanks for posting this.

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  2. Oooh, pretty. I'm gonna go for the Olivetti, though. That half-painted carriage return lever is swank! (:

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  3. Richard, I think with this one you have become the Sir Edmund Hillary of the Everests in Everest Week - you have reached the highest possible peak. Beautiful!

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  4. A pity that something which looks so nicely contoured/designed is mean and graceless to type on.

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  5. Very nicely done! I agree with Robert, you rose to the challenge magnificently. The Everest 90 has a very strange keyboard: it is as though they merely switched the Italian qzerty to qwerty, but then kept all the other elements the same! The azerty on the rescued red Everest K2 has all those annoying quirks too - shifting for numerals and the period.

    Between the Everest 90 and the Olivetti Ico, I must admit a preference for the latter - for one thing it is smaller, and also the boxy look has never held much appeal for me.

    Very nice black K2! You have quite a collection of these "stealth" typewriters, I can tell...

    I hope you'll be able to find a red K2 with a suitable keyboard someday!

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  6. P.S. For that graceful italic typeface and those elegant glass keys, I would suffer any indignity - including an unwieldy keyboard layout and a boxy frame! Italic has eluded me thus far in my typeface collection, but maybe one day...

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  7. I had never heard of Everest typewriters until my son brought home an Everest 92 office machine.
    It weighs a ton and is an absolute beauty. However, I cannot find any information about it. Have you come across it?
    https://bit.ly/2HloKgw

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    1. It is an impressive machine. I have admired big Everests from a distance, but never had a chance to try one. You can see another Everest 92 and do further research on the make at The Typewriter Database.

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  8. Hi I have an Everest MOD90 1951 model. it is magnificent conditon, however I am trying to get my hands on a copy of the manual

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  9. The £ on the keyboard is the sign of the Lira (Italian currency at those times), it's not the sterlin.

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