1937 Klein-Urania
Up for sale is a truly collectible machine; a Klein-Urania which was manufactured in Dresden, Germany in 1937. This typewriter was not made for importation into America, and so it has a German keyboard. As such, these typewriters are not common in the US, but can occasionally be found for sale on places like eBay from international sellers. More information of this model can be found here: https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2013/07/urania-portable-typewriter-i-join-davis.html
I have had this machine in my personal collection for some time now, however I have decided to re-home it to make room for some new machines.
This model gets very high praise from other typewriter collectors, and for good reason! This typewriter is absolutely smooth and solid to write on, and certainly does not feel like a fragile machine from the 1930s. The carriage return lever is located on the right-hand side of the carriage, which takes some acclimation, but once you are used to it, you may find it to be much more ergonomic and natural.
While I do not normally recommend machines of this age for heavy and frequent writing, this machine is an exception. The smooth typing action makes it easy to recommend this machine for frequent writing, and this typewriter is certainly built to stand up to heavy use, even all these years later.
With regards to the condition of this specific machine, it's quite impressive overall but it does have some imperfections. The most notable one is that the carrying case does not fit perfectly over the base of the typewriter (to which the typewriter itself is secured by four screws), however the case/lid does latch without any issues. The pictures of the case demonstrate how the bottom of the base (away from the latch) can tend to 'swing' outwards from the lid by about an inch or so. If you push the base back into the case, it will stay until another force is applied that makes the base pop back out again. In conclusion, the case will remain latched even with the base not 100% secured in the rear, however I would not completely trust the case to securely hold the typewriter while carrying it by the handle without pressing the base against my leg as it's carried. Otherwise, the case itself is in good shape, and the original key is also included. The leather handle is completely in tact and not flaking.
Cosmetically, this typewriter is near mint, although there are some small areas of paint loss (mostly on the sharp edges of the body, and one from the carriage return lever).
As I mentioned, this typewriter is a bit unique and takes some time to get used to, but once you are orientated as to how to use it, it's a very easy machine to use and care for. Universal ribbons do fit this machine, however it takes some careful but heavy pressing on the core of the spools to get the spools to seat down all the way. An all-black ribbon may be a little more technically correct for this machine since it does not have a ribbon color selector to utilize the bottom half of the ribbon, however it does not hurt anything to have a two-color ribbon installed since the top half is solidly utilized.
If you're looking for an incredible collectible typewriter from Germany that can still be used heavily and reliably, then this is by far my highest recommendation for you!