Acquired Hummer 3 hole punch (Wilson Jones Co., Chicago, IL)
Heavy steel punch in gray enamel with chromed handle
Anna Havron recently mentioned that she had a Bates Hummer punch from years back, so it only took a second’s thought to pick up this $3.99 purchase at the local Acts Thrift store when I ran across it on June 28th

It was in pretty solid shape with some heavy dust, light pitting on some of the steel, and some hints of rust on one of the bars. A quick cleaning today with some degreasers and anti-rust solution along with a brass bristle brush has brought it back to its original life. It really is stunning how solid this piece of office equipment still is all these years later.

Wilson Jones Co., one of the largest office supply manufacturers in the United States, was purchased by Swingline Inc. in 1959 and is now a part of ACCO brands who boldly state that Wilson Jones was the inventor of the 3 ring binder, though evidence indicates its origin predates this. The “Hummer” was one of their original and storied punches.

I’m unsure of the date of manufacture of my punch, though it was made in their Chicago, IL plant. 

With the grey enamel and shiny chrome, I’m thinking this 4 pound 13 ounce punch will match nicely with my 1949 Henry Dreyfuss-designed Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.

Jim Halpert of The Office and a 1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter

In an homage to The Da Vinci Code (2006), in season nine of The Office in episode twelve “Customer Loyalty”, Jim Halpert uses a mid-1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter to forge a letter from Robert Dunder which sends Dwight Schrute on a faux quest for the holy grail in what Jim calls “The Dunder Code”.

Jim Halpert in blue shirt and tie is working at his desk in front of a gray Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. Jim Halpert pulls a sheet of paper out of a Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with a flourish. Jim Halpert with a mischevious grin applies an invisible message to a typed letter with lemon juice. To his right side sits a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewrtiter.

Restoring a 1950 Royal KMG Typewriter

I spent some time this past week and over the weekend beginning restoration on my 1950 Royal KMG (Keyset Magic Grey) and getting it back “on [its] feet”.

  • fixed the grinding carriage
  • formed the bent rear tabulator enclosure
  • stripped down the body and did a full flush/cleaning on interior
  • light oiling
  • repaired disconnected typebars Q and @ by shifting the fulcrum pivot wire
  • repaired issues with the shift keys
  • formed the bar on shift assembly to improve the shift response which was abominably slow even after cleaning
  • fixed tab set/clear issues
  • tightened the loose mainspring for better typing tension/response
  • got the type “on feet” and made an adjustment to the motion
  • replaced ribbon
  • adjusted the typing line
  • scrubbed and shined the exterior
  • light polish and cleaning of typebars
  • polished the brights and the glass tombstone keys (wish I had keyring pliers for doing a full job on this)
  • removed the keyrings on two keys which desperately needed cleaning and adjustment
  • ordered new rubber feet and rubber compression fittings which should arrive later this week

I’ve definitely torn this machine down much further than any other I’ve worked on before, in some part because it required some extensive work, but also just for fun. I think after this I’m ready to completely disassemble an entire machine and rebuild it from scratch. Maybe on a Royal KMM or Royal X?

I’ve done enough work on this now that I can put it into my regular daily rotation. It’s sure to reveal a few additional small adjustments as I use it and there are one or two niggling things to tinker on while I wait for the new rubber parts to show up. I’ll also need to find an original metal pair of Royal standard ribbon spools. I suspect as the budget allows I’ll be replacing the platen on this shortly as well.

I’ve dubbed this machine “Slattery” in homage to John Slattery’s performance of the character “Roger Sterling” in Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015). I’m sampling Scotches and bourbons to find an apropos pairing

This typewriter (29 pounds) is the much bigger brother to my Henry Dreyfuss designed 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe (16.8 pounds with the case, not pictured). 

A hulking gray 1950 Royal KMG standard typewriter next to it's much smaller relative, the 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe as they sit on an oak library card catalog.

The Royal KMG, manufactured from 1949-1952, was known to have been used by writers including Saul Bellow, Edward Abbey, Joan Didion, Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Fred Rogers, Rod Sterling, Carl Reiner, Grace Metalious, Wallace Stenger, John Ashbery, and George Sheehan. 

If you’re restoring or repairing a Royal standard typewriter, I’ve started a YouTube playlist of videos, but it’s only got three videos with several more to come.

Photos from the restoration

View into the dusty bottom of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter featuring the shift post with the springs and nuts for the on feet and motion adjustments as well as the shift spring assembly. Above these are the type rods and springs which attach to the keys and typebars, which are unseen here.

Close up of the dirty, hairy inside of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter with a close up of the black, cracked and heavily compressed rubber foot. This will definitely require cleaning and replacement

A blue plastic air gun at a car wash is being pointed at a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter in the back seat of a car before the typewriter is "blown out".

A wooden dining table with a partially disassembled 1950 Royal KMG typewriter on it surrounded with a variety of typewriter tools, screwdrivers, and the pieces from the typewriter.

A variety of parts removed from a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter including the cover, the side panels, the platen, ribbon, feet assembly and a variety of wrenches.

Close up of the left side of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter featuring the paper table, the roller release lever and the right margin set lever. On the rear we can see the row of hundreds of tab clips used for the tabulator functionality.

Close up of a naked 1950 Royal KMG typewriter which fills the photo.

Close up of the typing point, naked carriage and part of the segment of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter

The four feet from the typewriter featuring four shoulder bolts, black metal brackets, and crushed, aged, and disintegrating black rubber.

Plastic typewriter spools with black ribbon which is so heavily worn you can almost read the imprinted type on them. Another round of use and we'll be able to see holes in the ribbon.

The clean front panel of a 1950 Royal KMG in gray frieze paint contrasted with the dust covers one of which is covered in 70 years of dust, dirt, tar, and hair and the other cleaned and sparkling after a treatment with WD-40.

Small globs of drying carnuba paste wax on the glass tombstone keys of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter

Side angle of a 1950 Royal KMG typewriter with a bookshelf and a chair with another typewriter on it in the background. This feels very warm and homey.

Hero 1950 Royal KMG typewriter on a library card catalog next to a small orange decorative pie pumpkin and a kindergarten-made black toilet paper roll black bat with googly eyes, wings, and silver decorations drawn on it.

Acquisition: 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter with Royal Vogue Typeface

On Sunday September 22, 2024, I picked up what appeared to be a boring-looking, run-of-the-mill, ubiquitous, mid-1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe in brown frieze crinkle paint from ShopGoodWill.com. These typewriters pop up everywhere and regularly sell in the $10-25 range. Of the 3163 typewriter models in the Typewriter Database, the Royal QDL is easily the most collected machine in the typosphere by a margin of 1.5:1 to the next closest model (the Smith-Corona Sterling) on the long list.

I present my 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable typewriter with a special hidden feature.

Angled down on the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter next to a crystal old fashioned glass with a shot of Scotch.

The online auction listing for this particular typewriter happened to have a photo of the type basket which included a telltale W, whose sans serif centerlines crisscrossed, which piqued my interest beyond my collector’s desire for a late ’51/’52 QDL variation to pair with my ’48 and ’49 versions and my trusty 1955 model. It was listed for $10.99 when I first saw it, so I waited ever-so-patiently for 4 days with half a dozen alarms set to see if I could snag it for a dramatically below-marketplace valuation. There was one other bid for the minimum, so I put in two last minute bids, one for $20 and another for $1,000 just in case the other bidder had observed what I had noticed and intended to snipe it away. The typewriter collecting gods smiled warmly on me that day.

Close up of the typeslugs on the lefthand side of the basket on a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe with a Vogue typeface. The keys feature the letters and symbols from Q through X including the distinctive overlap of the center crossing lines of the capital W. Between characters on each the slugs are stamped with a small letter "v".

Eagle eyes, patience, and careful bidding won the day! Knowing the perils of typewriter shipping, especially from Goodwill, I followed up the bidding win and spoke to the GoodWill shipping manager and made an increased donation to their shop to ensure the machine was properly packaged for shipping to prevent possible damage to the uncommon machine. All-in I scored a Royal Vogue for the bargain basement price of under $100. It’s the biggest win I’ve experienced in my short typewriter collecting career. Unless I trip over a mint condition Sholes & Glidden sitting next to a garbage bin, I may be unlikely to surpass this level of luck again.

Given that I’ve seen machines, usually Royal model Ps, with a Vogue typeface go for $950-1,200 in unknown working shape on the open market, I suspect that cleaned up and in restored condition, this could easily sell for $1,500-2,500. Of course, I’ve fallen in love with the typeface, so I’m unlikely to let it go any time soon. 

Design

This 1952 machine follows the QDL redesign by Henry Dreyfuss from August 2, 1945 which was put into production in 1948 and changed a bit in 1949. It maintained some of Dreyfuss’ angular shape as well as the tombstone shaped keys, though they changed from the older glass keys of the 40s to the green plastic of the beginning of the plastic onslaught which was to change typewriter manufacture for the next decades. 

The front of the this iteration of the machine features a chromed Royal badging flanked on both sides with chrome wing features which have cutouts for the ribbon reversal and ribbon color selector switches. Later versions in subsequent years would lose the wings in lieu of a hood latch button and and a simpler ribbon color switch selector.

table level view of the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with scant chrome finishes

The Fall/Winter Sears catalog in 1952 listed this new variation of the Quiet De Luxe for $103.58 in both pica and elite options. The Vogue typeface would have been an available custom order option for a few dollars at the time, but it apparently wasn’t an often ordered one. Of the 522 Royal QDLs in the Typewriter Database at the moment, I’ve only found 5 (including this one) which have a Vogue typeface which makes it less than 1% of the total. Given collectors’ affinity for them, I could easily imagine the actual manufacture rate may have been even smaller.

Though the catalog indicates that the model was 17 pounds for both the machine and the case, my typewriter is 15.7 pounds by itself and 20.1 pounds in the case.

Overall condition

This machine has the appearance of having been at least moderately used. There are a couple bits of paint knocked off some edges (common with portables of this size) and the machine internals were relatively clean. 

While the machine was in very solid workable and immediately usable condition when I received it, it definitely deserved some care and attention. In particular, someone had ill-advisedly used a black/correction ribbon on it, so the interior around and below the typing point was covered with white correction tape sludge.

Close up of the ribbon vibrator and a portion of the segment of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. The platen and the cylinder scale are flecked with lots of dots of white correction material

On Saturday, October 19th, I spent several hours in the afternoon and then again in the evening pulling the machine apart, cleaning all the external and internal parts and flushing it out with lacquer thinner. Simple Green did an excellent job on the exterior, and I scrubbed some flecks of Correction Fluid off the body. A quick and very light oiling has the machine purring now. I also did a rubdown on the crinkle paint with some WD-40 to make the exterior truly sparkle. I’m now the proud owner of a scintillating wonder of engineering and typeface design.

Close up of the brown frieze crinkle paint on the hood of the typewriter which has a nice sparkle effect to it.

Thought it had the appearance of being reasonably maintained, I couldn’t find any clues that it had had a major overhaul or serious cleaning aside from general maintenance. A few of the linkages had some old, brownish/black grease on them which I would take to indicate that it probably hadn’t been serviced since the 1960s. I’ll have to look up historical dates for the black/white correction tape release, but given the dryness of the black portion of the ribbon I’m guessing the ribbon may have been from the late 1970s. 

A naked Royal Quiet De Luxe sitting on a towel on a wooden table surrounded with typewriter tools, cleaning supplies, and the disassembled portions of the typewriter body and carriage.

Of particular note, the platen still has a small amount of “give” left to it and isn’t as rock hard as I might have suspected for its age. This means I may wait a bit and replace the platen(s) on other machines before I need to get to this one. The rubber rollers still work well and the rubber feet are in reasonable shape too.

The 1952 Quiet De Luxe came with an original period case as well as a key and the original typewriter manual, a digital copy of which can be found on Richard Polt’s Typewriter Site. (At the rate things are going, I’m finding extant keys are almost as rare with portables as finding a Vogue typeface.)

There is what appears to be a Social Security number scratched into the brown paint on the bottom of the machine. I won’t comment further other than to say its a California area SSN, which is where I purchased it, so there’s a reasonable chance that this was a single owner machine.

Keys

The keyboard has a typical mid-century Royal layout. The keys are in a traditional dark green plastic double shot with white plastic. They’re all in exceptional condition aside from the letter “C” which has a small surface flaw that I ought to be able to buff out pretty easily. There are 42 keys and slugs giving 84 typeable characters for a standard United States English keyset along with six additional keys for backspace, shift, shift lock on the left and tab, margin release, and a shift key on the right. The bottom of the 4 bank keyboard features a more standard inset  brown spacebar than its 1948 and 1949 predecessors which had a blocky black design element that made the spacebar more integral to  the front frame of those machines.

View of the keyboard of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe featuring green keys and a brown spacebar.

Other functionality

Manufactured roughly at the peak of typewriter functionality, this medium sized portable machine has almost everything a typist could want in terms of functionality. 

There is a rear rabbit-ear style paper support, double sided Royal Magic Margins, touch control (inside the hood), a manually accessible ribbon switch and bichrome/stencil setting switch on the front, and five manually adjustable tabulator sets accessible from the back which are viewable when looking down with the paper table folded back. It has left and right carriage release levers, both temporary and permanent platen adjustment mechanisms, and a single card finger on the right side of the typing line. This QDL has the usual 1, 2, and 3 line spacing mechanism.

Close up view of the hood, typebasket hole, carriage, and paper table of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.

Case

The case certainly has seen some heavy signs of travel, but seems to be holding together well despite the wear. The inside is in excellent shape and none of the fabric on the exterior is coming off despite the heavy wear.

A worn, but functional yellow fabric covered hard case for a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable typewriter.

Burgundy red interior of a typewriter case for a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable.

A typewriter manual boasting "You own the World's No. 1 Portable" next to a small, black Royal typewriter brush and the key for its case.
Disaster Girl all grown up and ready to put out some serious samizdat.

Typeface Sample

The typeface on my Royal QDL is the previously mentioned highly prized and much-sought-after Royal Vogue. It types 10 characters per inch and 6 vertical lines per inch. A type sample from my machine with blue and green ribbon appears below. If you need an extended sample, for fun I typed out a large portion of the lyrics to Madonna’s 1990 hit Vogue.

Typeface sample of 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe with a distinctive san serif art-deco inspired Vogue face.

Sound

Here’s a sound sample of inserting a sheet of paper, aligning it, writing a sentence, the bell, and a return with more typing on my 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe: 

Photo Gallery of Cleaning

Photo Gallery of Finished Machine

Hero shot of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter on a library card catalog next to a green bottle of Laphroaig with a white label behind a crystal old fashioned glass of Scotch. Angled down on the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter next to a crystal old fashioned glass with a shot of Scotch. table level view of the front of a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with scant chrome finishes View of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe in brown frieze paint and green plastic keys sitting on a wooden library card catalogue. An old fashioned glass of bourbon sits in the background. Table level view of the left side of a brown crinkle painted 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter View from behind 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter down onto the rabbit ear paper supports and into the typebasket of the typewriter View into the hood of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter showing the typebasket with cleaned slugs. Oblique angle of the left rear corner of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter Table level view of the back of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter featuring the somewhat faded but still very clear Royal decal and company information. Table level view of the right side of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. View of the keyboard of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe featuring green keys and a brown spacebar. Angle down onto the right side of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter Close up view of the hood, typebasket hole, carriage, and paper table of a brown 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. View of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter from the top two rows of keys to the back with the hood open so that we can see the ribbon in the cups and the typebars sitting on a black rubber rest. Left rear corner of a 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with the carriage moved to the right to reveal the window onto the frame with the typewriter's serial number 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter sitting on its rear panel so we can see the bottom of the machine and all of it's internals

You see photos of standard typewriters, but you’re never ready for what shows up. To provide some scale, here are my 12.8 pound 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable and my 29.8 pound 1955 Royal HH standard next to each other. The Royal HH is a substantial typewriter. (I think I’m in love. 😍)

A straight on view of a small gray Royal QDL typewriter next to a brown Royal HH which is almost 2 1/2 times the size of  the first. Both sit on top of a wooden library card catalog.

View from the left of a small looking Royal QDL in the foreground with a larger Royal HH sitting behind it.

Angle from the right of a hulking Royal HH looming over a much smaller and delicate looking Royal QDL in the background.

 

Acquisition: 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Two months ago at the end of April, I saw a Royal QDL for sale for $9.99. The temptation was just too much to own what appeared to be a mid-1950s model typewriter for such a pittance. The gray body with the green keys was appealing. I was already a fan of my 1949 Royal QDL designed by Henry Dreyfuss. I was totally unsure of the condition, but it didn’t look half bad from the photos I saw at the time. 

Naturally the seller totally botched the shipping, didn’t lock the typewriter into its case or provide any internal packing materials, so it was left it to rattle around inside its case as it wended its way across the country from Indiana to Los Angeles. There was some damage, but I’ve managed to carefully repair the worst of it this past weekend as a way of celebrating National Typewriter Day.  This beauty entered my collection on 2024-05-07.

Front view of the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter sitting on a wooden table. Extended up in the back are the V shaped metal "ears" of the paper support.

Now that I’ve got it cleaned up and adjusted pretty well with a new ribbon spinning around inside, I have to admit it may be one of the most solid machines in my segment of typewriters. 

I’ll admit that the mid 1950s Royals don’t seem to be the most sexy or desirable machines out there from a collectors’ perspective. As a result they’re often available at bargain basement prices like the almost $10 I paid for this one. But on the other hand, they’re sturdy and reliable, and make really great machines for the money. If you’re new to the typewriter game and want to actually type on a regular basis, you really can’t go too far wrong with one like this. I’ve now picked up three for incredible pricing and all of them have been highly workable right out of the box. 

If it helps, this popular model of typewriter was the machine of choice for Alistair Cooke, Clifford Odets (ca ’57), Marlon Brando, General Claire Chennault (ca ’57), Stephen King, James Michener (’49/’50), Edward R. Murrow, David Niven, Anne Sexton, and Theodore Sturgeon (’48).

Design

Naturally as a 1955, this machine follows the striking redesign of the QDL by Henry Dreyfuss in 1948. While it doesn’t have the same stark angular shape as the ’48-’50 models it still follows his general template, but with green and white doubleshot plastic molded keys instead of the glass tombstone keys. As a 1955 model it’s got just about all the bells and whistles a manual typist could ask.

Overall condition

Despite the rattled shipment cross country, the machine was generally in good shape for its 69 years around the sun. The keys all worked reasonably well, and the interior wasn’t great, but also wasn’t as dusty and dirty as some machines I’ve acquired. One of the biggest areas of wear is the numerical scale on the paper bail. The exterior was quite dirty, but cleaned up nicely with mild detergent and water. I could probably go back and be more aggressive with it, but there is something nice about leaving a bit of the patina of use. There are a few scuffs and the decals are in generally good shape though a touch faded on the back. My general experience with these Royal decals is that they don’t do well with water or even the lightest cleaning, so generally I leave them alone.

The serial number RA-3010220 places its manufacture between January 1955 (2,977,900) and January 1956 (3,177,500). Based on my very basic, unscientific linear manufacturing birthday calculation using data from the Typewriter Database, I would celebrate this QDL’s birthday as February 28, 1955. For the die hard movie fans, this means it might have been the sort of contemporary machine that George McFly might have used in Hill Valley on November of that year to write some science fiction.

The typewriter came with modern plastic universal spools and a monochrome black ribbon which seemed spotty at best, so I quickly opted to replace it with new bichrome black and red ribbon which better suits its functionality. I do wish I had the original metal spools. 

Typebasket and ribbon spools of the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

The machine internally was in broadly good shape, but needed some very light cleaning which went fairly quickly with some mineral spirits. I’m generally happy now with the overall alignment of the machine. When typing at full speed I do occasionally get some piling up of letters, but it’s infrequent enough that I’ll let it go for the moment.

I want to play around with both the touch control and the speed control settings before I tinker with the alignment any more. I still want to experiment a bit with the Magic Margins on this machine some more, particularly as it has both left and right and my other Royals only have the automatic functionality for the left hand margins. This QDL has a medium weighted segment shift.

The return lever was a bit sticky but easily cleanable and repairable. The space bar was at a bit of an angle, and I had some issues with it when re-attaching the body panels which caused both the space bar and the keys to bind and not work. Forming the spacebar a bit got it not only back into the body, but functioning properly as well as square with the world again.

I also want to properly polish up the keys and give a final tweak to the level of the ribbon so the bichrome is perfectly aligned.

Keys

This Quiet De Luxe has 49 keys all in the same green plastic with white lettering. It has a standard QWERTY-based U.S. keyboard for 1950s typewriter. The left and right shifts, and left shift lock are blank. The “BACK SPACE” key is in the upper left and the “TAB” key is in the upper right. The margin release (labeled “MAR REL”) is sitting between banks 2 and 3 on the right hand side. The spacebar at the bottom spans the length of about 7 of the standard keys.

Close up of the green plastic keys and white lettering of the keyboard on the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Other Functionality

It didn’t come with one, so the closest manual I could find online was a 1952  manual via Richard Polt’s website.

The “RA” serial prefix introduced “Speed Control” motor tension control, similar to “Carriage Control” on the Royal standard model HH. According to the Typewriter Database this feature vanished with the end of the RA prefix QDLs in 1956. I’ve only tinkered with this feature a little bit, but hope to circle back on it in the future.

View down into the left side of the typewriter carriage on a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe. On the outside of the machine on the far left is a black thumbscrew knob which attaches to an unseen metal rod which actuates a gear that attaches through the hub for the typewriter's drawband just above the gear. Just above this is a small indicator wheel which appears to be set at about 3.5.
Looking into the right side of the carriage is a worm drive and a numbered indicator numbered 1-5 and controlled by the black thumbscrew on the left side of the machine.

The back of the machine has a spring loaded paper table which is actuated and held by two metal hooks. The right side of the paper table had taken a hit (probably in shipping) and the hook on the right hand side had become disconnected. A bit of forming and patient work got it reconnected and it now seems to be functioning as expected. 

Right side of the paper table opened up and featuring a metal bracket which holds the table cover onto the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

This QDL has a tabulator hidden underneath the paper table. It’s set manually using several sliding blocks along a metal bar.

The opened paper table on the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter. We see metal bar inside it with six sliding metal tabs.

The platen knob on the left hand side has a permanent variable spacing push button on the outside which allows the platen to turn freely. For temporary variable spacing of the platen (often done for subscript and superscript characters) there’s a black thumb switch on the left just to the right of the carriage return. Once those characters are typed, flip the switch back and the platen re-engages at the same spacing set up as before. Just to the left of this switch is a sliding switch to control the single, double, or triple spacing mechanism. 

Angle on the left corner of the carriage on the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter. From the left are the return lever, the black plastic platen knob, the lever for the spacing controls, the black plastic Magic Margin button, and a lever with a black plastic thumb rest for the variable platen control

There is no sign of a carriage centering or locking mechanism.

The back of the paper table has an embedded spring loaded pair of metal rabbit ear-like paper supports. 

This model has a variation of Smith-Corona’s “Page Gage”, but will require some thinking about to use properly as it doesn’t seem as straightforward as S-C’s version.

This machine did have some felt on the main body panels, but none under the hood or in the paper table, and not nearly as much as some of the 1950s Smith-Corona machines.

Close up of the graded markings on the platen of the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter

Case

The case for the typewriter is a sturdy, relatively thick fiberboard covered in yellow tweed-like fabric on the outside with a smooth green interior. There is a solid metal cleat in the back to which the rear of the typewriter can be inserted and there are two metal cleats with clamps that hold the front sides of the typewriter down. There is a thumb lever on the left rear hinge of the case which allows the top to be separated easily from the bottom. It has some scratches, marks and wear, but nothing out of the ordinary for a case of this age and use.

The top of the case has a traditional U-shaped bracket for holding papers, but there are also to metal brackets on either side to help hold the typewriter in place while the case is closed. One of them is a long flat fin which helps to push the return lever and hold it in while the case is closed. 

The hardware on the case seems to be in good condition including the chromed lock and the black Bakelite handle. Naturally, though the lock works as expected, this machine didn’t come with an included key.  Finally the case has some rubber feet on the “closed bottom” configuration, but seems to be missing the feet for use with the case open. I’ll see if I can’t pick up something period appropriate to remedy this.

1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter and it's opened case with a green interior sitting on a wooden table.

Green interior of the bottom portion of the typewriter case

The top of a typewriter case in closing position. A flat metal fin mounted to the case pushes against the return lever of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter as it closes.

Thumb latch is being pulled away by a finger to allow the hinges of a typewriter case to be pulled apart

Oblique view from above of a yellow and somewhat worn typewriter case with a black handle

Typeface Sample

This machine has an pica typeface with 10 characters per inch and a traditional bichrome switch as well as a stencil setting. 

3x5 inch index card with a typing sample that reads: 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Serial number: RA-3010220 Pica typeface, 10 CPI, portable bichrome, U.S. keyboard, segment shift; tweed hard case, key 234567890- qwertyuiop asdfghjkl; zxcvbnm,./ "#$% &'()* QWERTYUIOP ASDFGHJKL:@ ZXCVBNM,.? the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. A VERY BAD QUACK MIGHT JINX ZIPPY FOWLS.

 

Close up of the cleaned type face and typebars of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter. There is a happy bit of gleam with the faintest hint of ink usage.

Sound

Here’s a sound sample of inserting a sheet of paper, aligning it writing a sentence, the bell, and a return on the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe:

Photo Gallery

Below are some additional photos of this lovely Quiet De Luxe. There are some additional photos of this typewriter taken apart into pieces from a prior post about cleaning and repairing portions.

Frontal table level view of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Focus on the hood and carriage of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter

Typebasket and ribbon spools of the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Angle on the Touch Control settings on the left side of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe with it's hood open. Also visible are a chrome button on the front which allows the hood to be open. Just behind the touch control is a metal lever for switching the direction of the ribbon.

1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Close up of the left corner of the carriage on the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter. From the left are the return lever, the black plastic platen knob, the lever for the spacing controls, the black plastic Magic Margin button, and a lever with a black plastic thumb rest for the variable platen control

Close up of the ribbon vibrator of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe and a small silver card finger in the down position.

Close up of the ribbon vibrator of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe and a small silver card finger in the up position.

Table level view of the left side (profile) of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Table level view of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter with it's paper support ears extended.

Table level view of the right side of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Angle down on the right side of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

View into the typebasket of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter with the hood open.

Angle on the front chromed Royal badge and some of the green keys of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Close up of the bell and clapper looing into the bottom of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

View of the complicated mechanical bottom of a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter

Sitting on a wooden card catalog is a 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter in gray body panels with green keys.

Users of the early Henry Dreyfuss Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriters

Now that I’ve got exemplars of both the 1948 and 1949 Henry Dreyfuss designed Royal Quiet De Luxe (QDL) typewriters, I’ve been delving into others who would have used these iconic machines.

The 1948 obviously has a very distinctive black frame with dark gray hood and highlights with the black stripe across the front where the badge is. The QDL’s were distinguished from their less expensive Arrow model brothers by the presence of a tabulator and the attendant tab key in the top right of the keyboard. 

The 1949 and early 1950 version of the QDL were given lighter gray bodies and the black band across the front was replaced by a chrome strip which encircled the ribbon control levers on either side.

According to the Typewriter Database and exemplars there, the Quiet De Luxe had a re-design of the shell near the end of 1950, somewhere around serial number 2,000,000 (between 1974816 and 2064139). The hole in the hood/ribbon cover was enlarged, the chrome strip across the front was removed in lieu of chrome “wing” inserts for the ribbon control levers “except on special-order and some foreign keyboards.”

Based on the photos of Royal QDL and portable users collected by Richard Polt on his website at https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/typers.html, we can now separate out some Royal portable users to more closely specify which models from which years they were using. 

I started with Vladimir and Vera Nabokov. The two photos [1] [2] taken at different angles by Carl Mydans for LIFE magazine in September 1958 clearly show a light gray machine with a tabulator, the iconic hood, and the distinctive chrome strip of the 1949/early 1950 Dreyfuss Royal Quiet De Luxe. It would be nice if Vera’s hands weren’t covering up the distinctive space bar at the front of the machine’s frame, but the look and style of the case bottom the typewriter is sitting in are also consistent with the 1949 model. Incidentally, the Mydans photoshoot was just weeks after the American release of Lolita in August 1958. It was the first novel since Gone with the Wind to sell 100,000 copies in its first three weeks.

Similarly because of the distinctive features/colors of the 1948 vs 1949/early 50 models, we can put both Alistair Cooke and James Michener down as 1949/early 1950 QDL owners. Their machines also have the distinctive all gray bodies with black spacebars integral to the frame, chrome strip on front, and definitely have tab keys.

Of those in the Polt’s list, only Theodore Sturgeon has the original Dreyfuss redesigned 1948 Royal Quiet De Luxe. This photo isn’t as clear and a museum card is covering up the black space bar. We also don’t see the cutout on the hood because of the angle of the photo, but the overall coloring, the black stripe on the front, and the chrome ovals of the ribbon controls are definitely there as is the tab key in the top right of the keyboard. Better pictures could help solidify the identification, but other QDLs were different enough in shape that I’m reasonably confident here.

Of the other Royal portables Polt has listed, Marlon Brando‘s photo will need more research, but his machine doesn’t appear to have have a tabulator based on the bare silver bar on the back where the tabulator stops would have been attached, so it’s currently misidentified as a QDL. (Edit: Some later 50’s models hid their tabulator functionality underneath the paper table, so perhaps it could have been a QDL.) It could also possibly be an Arrow, a Companion (no tabulator), the related ‘F’ model, or an Aristocrat which was also manufactured with a tabulator. Stephen King’s photos [1] [2] aren’t clear or detailed enough for me to make an easy determination other than to say they’re not from 1948-early 1950. Anne Sexton’s definitely looks like a Royal portable from the later 1950s but needs more research. It’s definitely not from 1948-early 1950 either. A possible determining factor is that hers doesn’t appear to have the typical margin release key on the right hand side which was typically placed 1/2 way between banks 2 and 3. 

For other Royal fans out there, I’m curious to hear what you think about these identifications? Which is your favorite: the 1948 or the 1949/early 1950 version? Or do you prefer those from the later 1950’s?

A wooden library card catalog on which sits a 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter next to a crystal old fashioned glass and a fifth of Glenmorangie in a scotch bottle. To one side is a blue vase with small pink roses.

I’ve seen many references comparing the use of typewriters in an overstimulating technology space to the slow food movement. Since one regularly pairs wine with their meals, it only seems right to extend the typewriter analogy to liquor as well. Today, I’m pairing this smooth 10 year single malt Glenmorangie Scotch with the 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe.

Surely Hemingway would approve?

Type-o-sphere, what are you pairing with your typewriter today?

Typewritten index card in green elite type repeating the words of the paragraphs above.

Yellowed catalog page with photos of 5 portable typewriters labeled A-E with blocks of corresponding text below to describe them all and provide their list prices. The headline over the description reads: PORTABLE TYPEWRITERS.. NEW post-war models

Digging into some typewriter pricing history, I found a copy of the 1949 Sears Spring/Summer Catalog, which lists a version of my 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter (Sears SKU: 3 NM 4584T with Pica Type) for $95.08 on page 285. 

Converting 1949 dollars to 2024 using an inflation calculator indicates this is now worth $1,247.75. Considering that I got it for less than the original sale price in 2024 (including shipping) and that it works as well now as it did then, I feel like I got a pretty solid deal.

For comparison the competing portable models in the catalog included:

  • Royal Arrow $84.48
  • Smith-Corona Clipper $84.27
  • Smith-Corona Sterling $89.57
  • Remington Portable $84.27
  • Remington Portable with Tabulator $89.57
  • Underwood Leader $63.40

They also listed the Tower, a standard size desk typewriter, for $99.00 saying it was just a few dollars more than the portables.

For further comparison, the prior year, the 1948 Smith-Corona Clipper, a model of which I also own, was listed for $76.85. Adjusted for inflation this would be $995.96.