typewriter collections | Chris Aldrich

Usually I’m so busy chatting and marveling when I visit Helmut that I totally forget to take a few photos. Fortunately someone stopped in for some ribbon on a Hermes yesterday, so I took a moment to document some of the density of typewriters in Helmut’s spectacular typewriter shop. I only got photos of about half of the space, but tried to cover all the various refurbished machines ready for sale. Generally not pictured are the client machines for repair.

If you’re looking for a really great refurbished machine, then this is the place to stop in and try out almost anything ever manufactured.

I have to admit, even for an experienced collector, this shop is overwhelming, so perhaps do yourself the favor of browsing what he’s got listed online to make a shopping list before you go! Without some prep you could easily spend a week here and not see everything much less try out a tiny fraction of what’s on offer.

Helmut Schuze on the phone in the front of his typewriter shop literally stuffed with machines and typewriter paraphernalia.

Glass display cases with antique typewriters

Four display cases of typewriters with a row of seven typewriters in cases lined up on the floor in front of them. On top of the row are a handful of typewriters standing on their backs as well.

A display case with a dozen portable typewriters in various shapes and colors.

A bookcase crammed floor to ceiling with typewriters, and decorative items including book bags with typewriters printed on them.

a 4 foot by 5 foot corner of a typewriter shop with shelving absolutely jam-packed with portable typewriters. More typewriters are stacked on the floor in front of them.

Even more shelves jam-packed with typewriters. They just don't end in this shop.

Typewriters standing on their "backs" on a shelf and packed in like sardines up to the ceiling.

A filing cabinet in the background completely surrounded in the background, middleground, and foreground by hundreds of portable typewriter cases.

A back corner of a typewriter shop with portable typewriter cases stacked literally from the floor to the ceiling. On the floor in front of them is a box with about 6 ultra-portables in cases all standing on their backs.

Wedge-shaped wordprocessors jammed into shelving in the foreground with manual portable typewriters on shelving in the background.

Several dozens of parts typewriters packed into shelves in a dark corner of a typewriter shop.

A corner of a typewriter shop with more than 36 portable typewriter cases stacked up and filling the entire frame. The front door of Star Typewriter featuring a poster from the movie Ready, Willing and Able (1937) in which dancers perform on a massive typewriter whose keys are the "dance floor".