Very Rare Antique Underwood 5 Typewriter with Cyrillic Keyboard. USA, 1914

Very rare Underwood 5 typewriter with Cyrillic keyboard, made in the USA in 1914 and in excellent condition. The most attention-drawing feature of this typewriter is surely the keyboard: the keys reproduce the Cyrillic alphabet, as it was manufactured for the Slavic market. Aesthetically it is in really fine condition the metal body with side and rear openings preserves the original enameled finish and the golden lines which decorate the front side. Over the carriage and on top of the keyboard we can see the Underwood brand name in golden lettering, and the colorful logo too. At the back of the typewriter, we find the complete patent list, the last of which corresponds to the start of World War I. On the other hand, the keyboard is composed of circular keys with white background and black symbols, all of them with their nickel-plated reinforcement rings. The keys and the types work fine, so the machine can be perfectly used to type texts in Cyrillic. For its exclusive quality and amazing condition, this very rare Underwood 5 typewriter deserves to become part of a museum or a great collection of industrial antiques. Underwood Typewriters History 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 Underwood No. 5 launched in 1900 has been described as "the first truly modern typewriter". Two million had been sold by the early 1920s, and its sales were equal in quantity to all of the other firms in the typewriter industry combined. In 1959, Olivetti bought a controlling interest in Underwood and completed the merger in October 1963, becoming known in the US as Olivetti-Underwood with headquarters in New York City, and entering the electromechanical calculator business. The Underwood name last appeared on Olivetti portable typewriters produced in Spain in the 80s.