Valentine Typewriter - and Manual

A while back I posted some photos of the Olivetti Valentine typewriter that I’d managed to pick up, an object I’d been coveting for many years. It was in great shape, and included the hard-to-find manual. I finally got around to scanning the manual.

Here’s a picture of the “cover” - the manual is simply cardboard stock printed on both sides, and held together by a piece of string through a punched hole. Very simple. (Click here for a PDF download of the whole manual if you want it - note that it’s 3.7mb)

I love the tone of the manual, which is straightforward but also quite cheery, in keeping with the industrial design of the typewriter itself:

see how crisp and sharp your VALENTINE’s typing is? If you want it to stay like this, give the letters a cleaning every now and then, say once a month. Use the nylon brush moistened with some lighter fluid or gasoline. Another tip: when you are not using the machine, lock the carriage and keep your VALENTINE in its case

(lower case first sentence, and all-caps Valentine are in the original)

They don’t make them like this anymore.

So Not an iPhone: Olivetti Valentine Typewriter

I’ve wanted one of these classics, designed by Ettore Sottsass and Perry King in the late 60’s, since I was in design school 20 years ago. By chance I found one on Craigs List the other day for a great price locally. There’s a lot that can go wrong with them, so I’ve been wary about buying them on eBay, where they come up quite frequently (though usually for much more).

This one is a Valentine S, and it’s in pretty good shape. The rubber straps that attach the case are in OK shape, these are a common failure point as the rubber dries out, cracks and breaks. The case is a little scuffed up, and the top of the typewriter itself is a bit scratched from going in/out of the case. Otherwise it’s cosmetically pretty decent. It doesn’t work right now, I’d have to get it serviced, but I’m not planning on doing any actual typing…

I will scan the instruction manual also, as it’s very cute.

Update on Thursday, April 15 by Adam

A lot of people have emailed me asking about the manual. I did get finally get around to scanning it, you can find it here.