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Home » Optima » P1 » 1957 #247828
1957 Optima P1 Serial # 247828 1957 Optima P1 typewriter, Serial # 247828 Nick Winter's 1957 Optima P1 typewriter. 2017-02-27 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Nick Winter: 1957 Optima P1 Serial # 247828 This typewriter is a real stunner, but sadly it's a bit of a nightmare to use because the touch is unpleasant. It's hard and wooden; my aunt, who worked in a typing pool back in the day, found it quite impossible to touch-type with.

Curious that this typewriter came from East Germany and yet it has a dollar key. I wonder if it had some exciting diplomatic use in its past life - then again it might be stock standard and I'm romanticising it like a fool.

I am fascinated by products exported from the DDR, and I only recently found out what all the symbols on the backs of East German typewriters meant. If you're clueless like me, Google 'gütezeichen' - they're quality marks! I have no idea if it exists, but I would be so excited to read documentation of what all the code numbers found along with the marks mean. Make/model/factory designations, perhaps?

And in yet another round of 'answer Nick's amateur typewriter questions', any ideas about what the ℆ key means? I've found a reference to its use in Spanish and Portuguese to indicate item pricing which I've linked below, but that just seems so unlikely for a typewriter that had never left the DDR before I bought it.

This typewriter is no longer in my collection, having been sold.

1957 Optima P1 #247828

Status: Sightings
Hunter: Nick Winter (winter)
Created: 01-14-2016 at 12:33AM
Last Edit: 02-27-2017 at 10:21PM

Description Hunter 7 Photos 1 Like  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

This typewriter is a real stunner, but sadly it's a bit of a nightmare to use because the touch is unpleasant. It's hard and wooden; my aunt, who worked in a typing pool back in the day, found it quite impossible to touch-type with.

Curious that this typewriter came from East Germany and yet it has a dollar key. I wonder if it had some exciting diplomatic use in its past life - then again it might be stock standard and I'm romanticising it like a fool.

I am fascinated by products exported from the DDR, and I only recently found out what all the symbols on the backs of East German typewriters meant. If you're clueless like me, Google 'gütezeichen' - they're quality marks! I have no idea if it exists, but I would be so excited to read documentation of what all the code numbers found along with the marks mean. Make/model/factory designations, perhaps?

And in yet another round of 'answer Nick's amateur typewriter questions', any ideas about what the ℆ key means? I've found a reference to its use in Spanish and Portuguese to indicate item pricing which I've linked below, but that just seems so unlikely for a typewriter that had never left the DDR before I bought it.

This typewriter is no longer in my collection, having been sold.

Typeface Specimen:

Links:

Photos:

I've never seen ribbon spools this bad - they're cheap, nasty plastic. Very Soviet-bloc!
I've never seen ribbon spools this bad - they're cheap, nasty plastic. Very Soviet-bloc!







Hunter: Nick Winter (winter)

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Status: Typewriter Hunter
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Uni student located in Sydney, AUS. The amount of storage I have is a constant problem as I try to keep feeding my addiction...


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