Olivetti Valentine typewriters were designed by Ettore Sottsass and launched on Valentine's Day in 1969 and quickly became an Italian design classic. This one was made in 1969 and is the iconic bright red colour with orange spool covers and black keys and is in good working order. It has the usual Valentine logo on the front and the Olivetti logo on the back right and has the standard Olivetti "elite" sized type face giving you 11 letters to the inch.
This typewriter has been professionally cleaned, serviced, adjusted and tested. It is in full working order and is fitted with a new top quality American made ribbon so its all ready for you to start typing on.
We can supply Universal typewriter ribbons from $13.90 each including postage. Available in plain black, red/black and a range of other colour options. You can put these into the typewriter or rewind the new ribbon onto the metal Olivetti spools already in the machine.
It has some a few very minor and hard to see surface scratch marks mainly on the top section above the keys. This is very common with this model as the body rubs when put into the case and taken out over the years.
The case is in a good functional condition with the two rubber closures and handle all sound. The case has no cracks or chips.
Ettore Sottsass in particular worked a lot with Olivetti, and in the 1960s he travelled extensively throughout India and the U.S. picking up the influences which culminated in the hugely successful Valentine Typewriter. Sottsass was particularly enamoured of the Pop Art movement and incorporated quirky eye catching pop art inspired elements into many of his designs.
This machine can be found in many collections of industrial design and is on permanent display in the MOMA – Museum of Modern Art in New York. It remains a prime example of Italian design from the ‘plastic revolution’ which took place in Italian industrial design at the same time.
In this period, Italian design experienced a renaissance which gave birth to a whole new generation of products, many of which made the names of a number of designers and helped Italy come to be regarded as the hub of the new design movement.
This is an iconic typewriter design in a good working condition. We also include 4 photo copied pages of the instruction booklet.
