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Office Related Antiques

Typewriters

We Buy Antique Typewriters & Early Antique Office Antiques!!

We are active full time antique dealers in vintage Franklin Typewriteroffice related antiques and early antique typewriters.  We buy, sell, and deal in many different office related antiques and collectibles. This is our buying and general antique information website. We conduct our antique sales from our sister website www.Patented-Antiques.com

We buy early office related antiques such as antique staplers, mechanical pencil sharpeners, antique check protectors, antique calculators & adders, vintage slide rules,World Typewriter and more. Most of the office antiques I am talking about date from the turn of the 20th century and before.  I am not talking about and do not deal in most office equipment from the 1930's and later.  

I have provided addition specific information on some other types of office antiques we deal in on pages at this website and  have attempted to lay out the criteria or guidelines for the age / vintage and condition Smith Premier Typewriterof office antiques we are interested in.

There are separate pages linked in the left column for  antique electric or fuel fans and calculation devices.  Please visit those pages if that is what you have.  On the right there are links to past sales results with additional info and prices that individual.     

Please contact us at AntiqBuyer@gmail.com if you have EARLY PRE 1920 office related antiques that you want to sell.  If you have additional questions please see the FAQ / Questions page.

Condition

Condition is critical to the value of all antique & collectible typewriters and office antiques. With most office collectibles Hammond Typewriterand antiques the earlier the better and the more unusual the better. The same piece in near mint / perfect condition can sell for up to 10 times what the same piece in poor condition will bring.  

There are very few typewriters or other office antiques that date from later than the 1920's that are considered desirable. Common later typewriters such as those made by Underwood, Corona, Remington, Oliver, and many others are poor sellers and not much in demand unless they are the first models of that typewriter. Simply check eBay completed sale prices to confirm that. 

Antique typewriters from the turn of the century or earlier, and typewriters & early office machines that have a different appearance from the norm, are usually of interest.  If you will look at the pictures that I have provided here, and visit the Typewriter Past Sales page you will get a better sense of what I mean.
Merrit Typewriter
Desirable antique typewriters include those called Index typewriters. These vintage typewriters have unusual indexing devices instead of a standard keyboards (like the machine to the right).

Most typewriters whose keyboard do not spell out QWERTY as the first six keys on the top left side of the keyboard are going to be an unusual & collectible typewriter.

Williams Typewriter

Antique Typewriters that have double keyboards (one each for upper and lower case) or curved keyboards, or keys that are made of wood are early & unusual.  Antique typewriters that have keys that strike the paper from below or behind are desirable and collectible. These antique typewriters are referred to as upstrikes or grasshoppers.

To sum up, antique typewriters that have features different from those that you see on most later and typical machines have the most potential to be collectible in demand.  Most typewriters from the 1930's and later seen at the thrift stores or at most garage sales are too late and too common to have muchhammond 12 typewriter collector value. Typewriters from this era are being bought and their keys cut off to make jewelry out of. Or for their decorator value which is limited as there is so little demand or interest.

The picture at the top of the page on the left above is of a vintage typewriter called the New Franklin and is an example of an antique typewriter that has a curved keyboard.

The Hammond typewriter is a good example of the types of changes that a typewriter could go through during its production period over the years, and how different models have different values. The first model Hammond had a curved keyboard with wooden keys that almost looked like small piano keys.  This is the most valuable and as expected hardest to find model.  Later models had either curved or straight keyboards, and the keys themselves developed into something very similar to those on most later machines found today. The typewriter on the right is a #12 Hammond and is considered relatively common. They also produced what is known as the Multi-Plex another relatively common typewriter.

odell typewriterNames of some other desirable curved keyboard typewriters include the Polygraph, Imperial, Salter, Columbia Bar Lock and Crandall to name just a few.

 The next few pictures are of more index typewriters, or keyless typewriters. One of the best known is the Odell which was first patented in 1887. The Odell came in several models numbers, each having subtle differences. Again the first model is considered the hardest to find.

It should be noted that there are other index typewriters that are very similar in appearance with different names on them that wereVirotyp Typewriter produced either under license from the patent holder, or as with some models of calculators and other office devices, as knockoffs or copies of the real thing that were offered on the market in competition.

While the Odell and the French Virotyp  pictured above were based on a round design, other typewriters with an indexing feature were straight like the Merritt index typewriter.  These typewriters were very popular as attested to by the number of machines that have survived today.  It Hall Patent Index Typewritermust have been a combination of low cost and the notion that most people's handwriting was so bad that they needed to spend the time fiddling with one of these contraptions in order to have their thoughts understood on the receiving end.  I wonder how many words a minute were possible with one of these.

Some other names of early patented typewriters that operate in a similar mode and that I would be interested  in buying are The Hall, Champion, Peoples, Columbia, and Crown, to name just a few.

 The typewriters seen, and described here and on the typewriter past sales results page are examples of the caliber, condition and quality of office antique typewriters that I am interested in.

If you have any antique typewriters or other office related antiques that you want to sell please contact us at LCM@AntiqBuyer.com

To see examples of office related antiques that I currently have for sale please go to our sister site at www.Patented-Antiques.com .


Patented & Mechanical
Antique Pencil Sharpeners

We buy Antique & Collectible Pencil Sharpeners!!

If you have quality antique or vintage pencil sharpeners that you want to sell,  please contact us at AntiqBuyer@gmail.com providing me with as many details as possible.

Antique pencil sharpeners / pointers are a Peerless Pencil Sharpenervery popular antique office collectible.  The market for vintage antique pencil sharpeners has changed over the years. Ebay initially drove prices for early pencil sharpeners to record highs, but over time, as the limited pool of collectors got filled up, demand eased, and the constant supply overfilled the market, prices dropped.

Here is a perfect example.  Below is the Gould & Cook pencil sharpener. It is an early hard to find and Gould Cook Pencil Sharpenerdesirable antique pencil sharpener.  Before eBay and the internet they sold for a couple / few hundred dollars on the best of days.  In the hey-day examples were selling on eBay and privately for $1000-1500. Much of that buying and selling was going on between dealers helping to drive the price up further.  After a period of time, and after most serious collectors prices tapered off.  The final price correction happened after 6 of them were listed on eBay the same week. They started selling for no more than a couple hundred.  Today, nice examples typically sell for 300 - 500 when offered and sold on eBay. That same sort of price history has happened for almost all specific sharpeners.

Pencil Sharpeners are not alone in experiencing this sort of price adjustment.  Just like it did with Beam bottles, Avon, beanie babies, lunch boxes, Griswold Cast Iron and every other collectible that got hot and then cooled off.

Antique Pencil Sharpener History

The race to design and market the "best" pencil sharpener seems to have begun in the 1880's to about 1910 or so.  There were a few Antique Pencil Sharpenerinteresting collectible versions designed coming from the popular deco era, but that is the general time frame for most good examples.  In general unusual and rare Pencil sharpeners that date from before or near the turn of the century are the ones that are the most collectible and have best held their value.  After that outfits like Boston and Dexter dominated the market with their roller burr cutter models, and the era of design ended. 

The following pictures are of some of the earlier and harder to find mechanical pencil sharpeners. Values for these patented pencil pointers can range from under $100 up into 4 figures even today.   There are a few truly rare and desirable patented and mechanical sharpeners that occasionally pop up and sell for record prices.  

Mechanical pencil sharpeners that perform their job through the use of knives or other unusual methods rather than the later more typical ones using roller mill cutters / burrs such as Bostons & Dexters, are more desirable and valuable.

The pencil sharpener on the left is called the Patented Pencil SharpenerLittle Shaver or Handy.   It comes in a number of variations both in finish and in simple design changes to hold the cutter, the pencil, or the make-up of the swinging arm.  Note the condition of that one with the original label from a shoe store still affixed.  Details like that enhance value. 

The relatively common U.S. Automatic Pencil Sharpener was patented in about 1906, and several different variants of it exist. The example at the top of the page is a one-of-a-kind presentation piece made by Asprey of London, which is England's equivalent to our Tiffany & Co.  There is no value range for that sharpener as I obtained it through a trade, and no other one exists that I know of.  The typical model U.S. Automatic generally brings $100 or less today in so so condition. They can bring $200 or more depending on condition.

Other variations of the Automatic that are known include a leather covered model, or those with different Avanti Pencil Sharpenerlabels or decals on the front. Some had different labels advertising businesses.  There are also some with different bases as well.  The same company also made the pencil sharpener called the Jumbo which was the same basic design, but a bit bigger and a bit more complicated, and it used a slightly better design to turn the pencil instead of using the blade to accomplish this task.

There are also a number of foreign pencil sharpeners that are based on the same design of a revolving knife blade.  The Avanti on the left is an example of this type. There are a number of other sharpeners that are identical to this with different names or housings.  I have been told Avanti sharpeners date from the 60's or later.
Patented Planitary Pencil Sharpener
On the right is a patented Planetary Pencil Sharpener which is a very graphic sharpener that comes in a few different versions as well. The one  pictured is a later model. The earlier models legs are attached at the base by a bar between them.  This pencil sharpener was designed to be either a table or wall mount and you swung the legs around to accomplish this after removing a screw.  These antique pencil sharpeners never had a cover and are proper as shown.  The shaving drawer is oftentimes missing.

Johnson Perfect Pencil PointerThis next sharpener is interesting because you had to provide your own blade or pocket knife.  It is marked the Johnson's Perfect Pointer. 

Some of these sharpeners originally cost as little as $1 or less and were targeted at the masses, or students.  Other more complicated and dressed-up models,  most notably those pictured in catalogs for draftsmen and surveyors or the like could cost upwards of $20.00 and were targeted toward the wealthier segment of the population.  In general these are far less common and sell for a premium today.  The names of some of these are the Quail, President, The Right, Dixon, L. E. B. Perfection, Lakeside, and aRockford Pencil Pointer Pencil Sharpener host of others. 

The Rockford Pencil Pointer pictured on  the right.   This sharpener was named after where it was made in Illinois. It is an over designed contraption.  It is hard to imagine that this one could outperform a pocket knife, but that is what the ads for it claimed. 

Antique Dixon Pencil ShapenerThis sharpener has also seen a large drop in value from what they sold for in the hey-day.  It is still a desirable and pretty hard to find one, and in the near mint condition this one is in would still sell for a few hundred on a good day I would imagine.

PLEASE NOTE!! We do not buy, sell, or deal in small figural die-cast sharpeners that were made in Honk Kong, Japan or China.  EVER!! -  NEVER!!


The pencil sharpeners described are an example of the caliber, condition and quality of these devices that I amAngell Model B Pencil Sharpener Acme Pencil Sharpenerprimarily interested in.  To see past sales results click the Office Antiques link in the right column.

If you have quality antique or vintage pencil sharpeners similar to those that you see on this page that you want to sell,  please contact us at AntiqBuyer@gmail.com providing me with as many details as possible.

To see examples of antique and vintage pencil sharpeners and office antiques that I currently have for sale please go to our sister site at www.Patented-Antiques.com and visit the office & scientific sale pages you will find there.


Early Telegraphy / Telephones / Medical
& Related Antiques

We buy and can help sell Antique Telephones, Telegraph Equipment, Antique Office Equipment and Related Antiques!!

We buy and sell early & vintage telephones, antique telegraphy and telegraph keys, stock tickers, and Candlestick Telephoneother collectible office related antiques. The types of antique telephones, vintage telegraph devices and office antiques we are interested in date from the mid 1800's up through about 1920 or so.

Early telephones are becoming very difficult to find.  Below are some examples of the types and styles of vintage vintage telephone telephones that we sell.  The first picture is of a typical Candlestick style phone that is often seen for sale in antique shops and at antique shows.  This one is a Kellogg and is a bit different  because of the nickel plating instead of being all black as the most common antique telephones of this style are.  In this style of phone I am particularly interested in varieties with different shaped bases or handles, those with dials or buttons, or old telephones where the body has different shapes from the standard round tube seen here.  I am also interested in buying  just the handsets, and especially those with two external terminals to attach the individual wires to instead of the single hole for one wrapped wire as on the phone above.

This next picture to the right is also of a Kellogg telephone that is styled like many foreign telephones that you see from France, Germany, and parts of Eastern Europe.  I am buying all early American phones from the well known makers such as Kellogg  and antique pay phoneWestern Electric and am even more interested in earlier and more obscure makers such as Stromberg Carlson, Westinghouse, American Bell, Ericsson and a host of others. vintage phone

We are also interested in early pay phones like the one  pictured on the left.  This style of phone is probably from the 20's or so and these also come in an array of different styles and designs by different makers and  I would be interested in any pay phone from this era or before.  I am also interested in some antique wooden wall mount telephones in nice original condition. The nicer and earlier the better. If you have one you want to sell I need to see a picture of it, and know the price in order to express any interest.  I rarely buy later common examples like those typically seen offered for sale on eBay. 

Antique Telegraph Keys & Telegraphy Related Antiques

Samuel Morse is given credit for being the first American to successfully utilize the idea of Telegraphy in America in 1838.  Although the ideas for, and some implementation of the ideas behind telegraphy telegraph keywere being experimented with and developed elsewhere and earlier, he was the driving force and most influential American name associated with telegraphy.

The first trans-Atlantic cable was laid in the 1860's and wires had already been strung cross country.  It was possible to communicate with people across far reaches, instantly with the touch of a button.  Progress.

The design changes and improvements made to the "button"  or telegraph key are what I am interested in.  The theory is pretty simple.  You send Antique Telegraph Key Morse Code over the wires by opening and closing an electric circuit.  But like most ideas there was room for improvement and new designs, and the process is still continuing.  In a sense email is just the latest type of telegraphy, but my interest stops a bit short of your last keyboard, and are more focused on devices used to send Morse code in the 19th and early 20th century. 

Telegraphy or antique telegraph keys come in many shapes and sizes, and there are a lot of early examples that have a great look and sense of design beyond the utilitarian thought of just interrupting the electrical circuit for an instant. Very early keys went through a series of design changes to meet the emerging technology, but given it was pretty simply just turning on and off a circuit, the design antique telegraph keychanges came to focus on or exhibit aspects of design and form for the aesthetic touch.  Many early keys are known as Hump-backs or camel-backs and have a wonderfully graceful form that was lost with the later introduction of low profile keys that used flat stock for the bar that most common keys from after 1900 have. 

Early telegraph keys usually were offered on wooden bases, but some had nicely decorated cast iron ones like the one just above.  Another interesting design are what are known as travel keys.  These came in small wooden, plastic or leatherette cases and could be taken on trips or the train whichvibro plex telegraph key usually followed the wires or visa-versa.   

After that most changes had to do with speed and trying increase it, and that is what designs like the Vibro-Plex and other modern speed keys are all about.  I am looking to buy almost any style of antique telegraph keys or Morse Code senders.   Later keys like the Vibro-Plex or AtoZ or Electro-key from Fresno are all much later keys, but they have a place in the scheme of things and their design has changed considerably since their intial introduction.

If you have antique telephones or telegraph related antiques like telegraph keys that you want to sell, please contact us at AntiqBuyer@gmail.com with complete details and any written information that is on them, a picture of them if you can, and we will get back to you ASAP

The antiques pictured are examples of the caliber, condition, and quality that we primarily deal in and seek to buy.

Thomas A. Edison Battery Powered Electric Pen / Pencil / Copy MachineIf you have quality scientific and office related antiques that you want to sell,  please contact us at AntiqBuyer@gmail.com providing me with as many details as possible.

To see examples of many other scientific related antiques I have sold in the past please go to the Past Sales Results Archive links in the right column.

To see examples of similar antiques that we currently have for sale please go to our sister site at www.Patented-Antiques.com and visit the numerous sale pages you will find there. 

Thank you!!
Larry & Carole

 


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Larry & Carole Meeker