Freshly Serviced: I was contacted by a man who has had this 1936 Royal Deluxe in his family since it was manufactured. It had originally belonged to his grandfather and was passed down to his father, then to him and now he intends to pass it down to his adult son who is fresh off the picket line from the writers strike out in LA. It is my firmly held belief that of the MANY things that typewriters can be, one of the most fulfilling functions they can serve as is multi-faceted generational wealth. They represent the power and the gift to create in analog.
And since I'm a sucker for a good story I agreed to clean and service this old beauty so that a TV & Film writer could make it sing again. Due to its age and the fantastic shape of the crinkle coating on the paint I took it slow with this one so as not to disturb any of the well preserved aspects while bringing the duller ones back to life. It needed some little things here and there, along the way someone must have been a night owl and removed the spring for the bell and bent the trip mechanism to ensure that it wouldn't ring. After replacing the spring and reforming the trip this machine is back to singing the song of its people.
I love these old Royal "A" and "O" models because the style can't be beat. Both the slick bodied paint and the crinkle paint are equally appealing when bound in the chrome plates trim. I believe these models were the high water mark for Royal typewriters with regard to producing machines of timeless aesthetic, particularly in a time where the United States hadn't even pulled itself out of the great depression.
If you don't currently own one of these and you're in the market for some eye candy you could do a whole lot worse than a Royal Deluxe "O" or "A" model.
