1960’s Royals are quite a rare find for me in my part of town.
Bowling ball-shaped dent in the bottom of the case, should flatten out ok. These cases are thin aluminum covered in vinyl, so they bend back easily if you do it gently.
Clearly Portugese Sabres are a different series than the Safaris. This one might be #5018, assuming they started production at #SB8,000,001
Oh, and just so you know I’m not off my Composer kick, look what’s headed my way as you read this: Nick T’s Composer and typeballs, adopted by yours truly to the Corral of Increasingly Print-Industry Related Machines. We’ll see how I do with one of these finicky difference engine escapement typewriters when it has something actually wrong with it. (:
“Hm! She is made of harder stuff! Cardinal Fang! Fetch…THE COMFY CHAIR!”
Aaaand, in other news, I’m still not supposed to say anything specific, but there’s a new issue of ETCetera magazine coming out soon in which I’ve contributed an article that I’m pretty happy about, on a pretty rare and interesting machine (actually a couple of versions thereof) that I had the chance to study last month. If you do not want to be spoiler’d, then don’t go to the ETCetera website and most definitely don’t download the gigantic PDF in the file section full of more ephemera and photos for this rare line of typewriters than you can shake a pretty big stick at. Totally don’t do that for sure until the magazine comes out, because I’m not entirely sure it’s supposed to be there yet. (:
Aaaand and – if you are not yet a subscriber to Etcetera, then I dunno what you’re waiting for. They gots an active governing board of folks you know and read everyday and they’re done with the musical chairs editor game. Issues are cracking smart and on time like the trains in Germany, and the content is trending to match the interests of new collectors as well as their established reader base. Heck, they got me to do a piece and you know I haven’t got anything intelligent to say about rare old iron, so that should tell ya a thing or two. Get on the stick and subscribe before #109 hits the mailbox!
That case is NOT aluminum covered in vinyl (you’re thinking of the Smith-Corona holiday case). It is injection-molded plastic. The owner most likely put his typewriter on the case as a table. Carry the typewriter in this case for a couple of hours and it should work itself out.
oh cool – then it’ll probably be fine when I check it tomorrow. I just laid some books in the bottom to try and flatten it out overnight.
That big, clean typeface is so easy on the eyes.
Nice find and so clean. I like the design of the Royal Sabre/Safari/Custom, I’d probably consider owning one in the future.
Shhhhhh that’s going to be a big heavy box when it arrives at your place. Enjoy. As for the Royal, you know I’m just not sold on these machines. I’m not drawn to them in any way. However at $14.99 I’d buy it in a heart-beat.
Happy typewriter day!
yeah, like I said, I’d not encountered one in the wild in good shape before – I was really surprised how much I liked it right off. It’s kind of like a 1950’s QDL knocked up a Galaxie. The result is something Galaxie-like with a 50’s Royal touch and none of the “Hollow Galaxie” sound that people complain of. I’d recommend at least trying one out if it happens along.
I just bought a Sabre. However, I have found that the cover obstructs some of the keys, so if I want to use it I must remove the cover. I am trying to figure out if there’s some defect that is causing this, but so far it seems like everything is in the place it’s supposed to be and this is a design flaw. Do you have any experience or advice for this? Thank you.
Service Manual – https://sellfy.com/p/0lDT/
Hi! I just acquired a beautifully kept Royal Sabre and, after encountering the same issue randomly, always with the letter “a”, looked under the cover and found that 2 of the 4 black rubber spacers had come unglued. Do you know if yours are in place?
Oh, I sold this one long ago. wouldn’t be able to tell ya now. (: