1926 Underwood Standard 4-Row Portable

See more photos of the 1926 Underwood Standard 4-Row Portable

“The Machine You Will Eventually Buy”

Note that this is one of three similar Underwood Standard Portable machines. See if you can find the differences between them.

By the mid-1920s the Underwood typewriter brand was making great sales headway against its ever-present competitor, Remington. Underwood’s big advantage was that it was a "visible" writer – that is, the typist could see what was being typed on the typewriter’s platen.

Many earlier Remington typewriters still in use in the 1920s used upstrike or "blind" writer technology, where what the typist writes is imprinted on the bottom of the platen, requiring the operator to lift the platen to see what had just been typed.

Underwood pressed its competitive advantage in its marketing of this machine using the slogan, “The machine you will eventually buy.” In fact, about 1.25 million of the portables were produced during the 20-years this and similar models were sold.

This 4-bank, 42 key model includes shift keys on both the right and left sides of the keyboard. A number of German characters are included on this machine’s keyboard.

Glass capped keys are a feature on this machine.

The serial number of this machine indicates it was one of the earliest produced.

This machine includes its original case.

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The 1926 Underwood Standard 4-Row portable uses a Qwerty, 42-key, frontstrike impact mechanism.
Overall condition: Good
Year: 1926
Serial No.: 4B3535
Type language: German
Manufactured by the Underwood Typewriter Company, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA