1924 Underwood Portable 3-Bank
Up for sale is a really neat Underwood Portable 3-Bank which was made in the USA in 1924. This typewriter was Underwood's first portable typewriter, and was a competitor to Corona's Folding typewriters which were selling very well at the time. This typewriter is very portable even by later standards, although it did sacrifice ergonomics and some functionality over full-sized portables that the market ended up demanding shortly after. This typewriter is in fully functional condition, and is in beautiful condition cosmetically as well. The labels are a bit worn, however the paint shines very nicely and the nickel plated parts shine almost like new as well. Despite this machine's small size, it is actually a really smooth machine to write with once you are acclimated to the smaller 3-bank keyboard. The feed rollers on this machine are unfortunately in need of re-surfacing ideally, however this machine can still load paper if you utilize the paper release and manually push the paper in until it is visible on the front side, at which point it will feed normally and the platen knob and carriage release lever will advance to the next subsequent lines without any issues. The platen itself is definitely old and could be resurfaced along with the feed rollers if you intend to use this machine heavily, however the platen is not in urgent need of replacing and still does its job. The case is in good condition for its age, although the leather handle is missing.
I would not recommend this machine for heavy use (such as writing a novel) for fairly obvious reasons, however this machine is one that can definitely be used for smaller writing tasks. This typewriter does use universal ribbons, which are sold on this site. The owner's manual for this machine can be found here: https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/Underwood3bankManual.pdf
If you're in the market for a really interesting piece of typewriter history, then this is a really impressive functional machine that is almost a century old!