Antique Underwood Typewriter No. 5 with Spanish keyboard. United States, Circa 1920

This great typewriter made in the early 20th century (circa 1920) is an Underwood No. 5, probably the most famous and popular typewriter ever. This model was made in New York (USA) for the Spanish market and with the Spanish letter Ñ, is a historic and state-of-art piece with an undeniable quality. It is in very good condition and works perfectly: it has been fully cleaned and fine-tuned to provide an optimal performance. This means that the typewriter can be used to type documents without any problem.Over the carriage and at the front of the typewriter we can see the printed market name: UNDERWOOD. The Underwood Typewriter Company was founded in 1895 by John T. Underwood. The family business made typewriter ribbon and carbon paper from 1874, but when some of their clients (such as famous Remington brand) started making their own supplies, they considered starting to manufacture typewriters. The first model produced was a design by Franz Xavier Wagner who showed it to J. T. Underwood: then, the Underwood No. 1 was born. The first Underwood No. 5 appeared in 1900 and was then described as the first truly modern typewriter. The one that we can see in these images shows some improvements but in essence it keeps the same spirit as the pioneers. As stated before, the QWERTY keyboard includes the Spanish letter Ñ: it is composed by circular pieces with white background and black symbols. The keyboard, the mobile metal parts, the pieces of the mechanism and the black-lacquered cast-iron body are in excellent condition, turning this beautiful typewriter into a very decorative piece. Any good collection of historic typewriters will not be complete without an Underwood No. 5 like this: a classic, beautiful and quality piece.