1964 Sears Celebrity #6ASB-114864

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Nadia Pinto (WantonSecretary)
Created: 08-20-2024 at 08:09AM
Last Edit: 08-20-2024 at 12:22PM

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Description:

1964 Sears Celebrity (Smith Corona-made), Numode/"Sears Futura" typeface, 10 cpi.
Serial #: 6ASB-114854

A relatively recent addition sourced from eBay for under $100, and yet easily a desert island machine for me. Just as its exterior doesn't need a lot of flash to be poetically beautiful, I don't need a lot of words to describe its beauty. How can so many simple details make a machine this hypnotic, at least to me? The red and blue stripes against the subtle grey bring it all together, but the sharp angles on the ribbon cover along with the curves of the body are no afterthought, either. It reminds me of an elegant yet functional sailboat.

And the typeface! I've fallen hard for the Sears typefaces. They may not have had a buffet of options, but what they did offer was intriguing. I think the only one I'm missing now is the Elite Gothic from their early 60s machines. I just had to go with a red and blue ribbon.

I can't complain much about the condition it arrived to me in considering that USPS almost lost it. There are a few scuffs and areas needing deeper cleaning, but all it really had was internal dust buildup. There is an occasional skip after the letter "a" that I need to address, but otherwise a happy typer.

Sure, not the most exotic or prestigious of machines, but I feel lucky to have it since apparently, they were only available in 1964. It currently lives at my office so the typeface can be shared with the world (or at least with my coworkers and fax recipients),

Typeface Specimen:

Photos:

Hunter: Nadia Pinto (WantonSecretary)

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Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 44

Growing up, one of the joys of yearly visits with my family in Rome plunking the keys of my dear Nonno Italo's mid-century typewriter. Those days are long gone, but my fondness for typewriters and all things nostaliga was deeply instilled in my distant Italian life.

Currently landlocked in the godforsaken northern Rockies, typewriters are a wondrous escape that I try to incorporate sneakily into my work as a government employee whenever possible. Office jobs are underrated. I treasure the records of decades past in old, typewritten documents and note cards that survive increasing digitization. I especially love going home to deep clean a lonely machine back to glory.

Still, I think I'm always searching for my nonno's typewriter. I don't know what it was, and I'll probably never lay my hands on it again. But the path through my growing typewriter collection is worthwhile.