Matypo — The collectors' corner
5 iconic
typewriters
Five machines that became benchmarks. We restore them and offer them regularly in our workshop.
Switzerland · Paillard · MCMLVIII
HERMES 3000
Origins
Launched in 1958 by the Swiss firm Paillard, the Hermes 3000 quickly became what many consider the most beautiful typewriter ever built. Its curved silhouette, its famous sea-green colour and the incomparable softness of its touch made it a legend.
Legend
Tom Hanks, a devoted collector who owns more than 250 typewriters, calls it “the Cadillac of typewriters”. Hard to put it better.
Switzerland · G. Prezioso · MCMXXXV
HERMES BABY
Origins
Designed as early as 1935 by the Italian engineer Giuseppe Prezioso, the Hermes Baby invented a category of its own: the ultra-portable typewriter. Barely 4 kilos, a compact case, and Swiss engineering of legendary reliability.
Legend
This is the machine of the traveller, the reporter, the writer on the move. Set your Hermes Baby down on a café table, lift the lid, and write — wherever you happen to be. Almost a century on, that feeling is untouched.
Italy · Nizzoli & Antonelli · MCMLXIII
LETTERA 32
Origins
Released in 1963 and signed by the designers Marcello Nizzoli and Sergio Antonelli, the Lettera 32 embodies the Italian elegance of the 1960s. Steel blue or pastel green, clean lines, ergonomics thought through to the smallest detail.
Legend
It is the machine Cormac McCarthy chose to write his entire body of work. After his death, his personal Lettera 32 sold at auction for 254,500 dollars, making it the most expensive typewriter in history.
Italy · Ettore Sottsass · MCMLXIX
VALENTINE
Origins
In 1969, Olivetti asked Ettore Sottsass for an object that should “keep company with amateur poets on a quiet Sunday in the country”. The result: pop, brilliant red, moulded entirely in ABS plastic, unveiled on Valentine's Day.
Legend
Its design broke with every convention of its time and soon became a manifesto of Italian industrial design. Today it sits in the permanent collections of MoMA in New York and the V&A in London. Discover the Valentine →
Germany · Groma · 1950s
KOLIBRI
Origins
Made in East Germany during the 1950s and 60s by Groma, the Kolibri (“hummingbird” in German) is one of the slimmest portable typewriters ever built. Just a few centimetres thick, an aluminium chassis, lines that are almost architectural.
Legend
A genuine jewel of post-war industrial engineering, it has now joined the small circle of the most sought-after collectors' machines. Compact, elegant, surprising.
These five models became benchmarks
for good reason.
We restore them and offer them regularly in our workshop. You simply cannot overlook them.
See our collection →