Antique Office Machines

Explore 600 years of caculating devices, from the abacus to the desk top computer, with valuable information for historians and collectors alike. With 500 color photographs, accurate captions, and a guide to current values, this will be an essential guide to collecting office machines.

Here is an incredible array of antique typewriters, adding machines, check protectors, copiers, coin changers, dictating machines, and more. Items like ribbon tins, medals and awards, novelties, and office-related toys bring offices of the past to life, along with ephemera like catalogs, legal documents, magazines, and original patents. Detailed captions, historical data, and a price guide make this book a must for anyone interested in office-related antiques and evolution of technology!

“Typewriter expert and collector Anthony Casillo presents a visual homage to the device that revolutionized correspondence” (The Florida Times-Union). From the creation of the QWERTY keyboard to the world’s first portable typing machine, this handsome collection is a visual homage to the golden age of the typewriter. From the world’s first commercially successful typewriter—the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer of 1874—to the iconic electric models of the 1960s, eighty vintage devices are profiled in elegant photographs and fascinating text that highlights the design modifications, intricate details, and peculiar quirks that make each typewriter unique. From functional advances like noiseless machines to luxurious details such as mahogany covers and inlaid mother-of-pearl, a century of design innovation and experimentation is charted in these pages. Packed with visuals and rich with history, Typewriters is the essential story of a writing invention that changed the world. Includes a foreword by Tom Hanks Praise for Typewriters “A Love Letter to Vintage Typewriters.” —Wall Street Journal “This is sure to delight typewriter lovers and those interested in machine or design history.” —Library Journal

Nearly 700 color photographs display two centuries of mechanical typewriters produced by Adler*TM, American*TM, Corona*TM, Monarch*TM, Remington*TM, Royal*TM, Smith Corona*TM, and many others. Typewriter development includes patents and brief histories of typewriter manufacturers. Current market values are provided in the captions.