Antique Identification Guides · August 25, 2026 · 2 min read

Antique Typewriter Identification and Value: From Understrikes to Valentines

The typewriter market has two worlds — ornate 19th-century oddities worth thousands and 20th-century desk machines worth their looks. Serial dating, the models that matter, and the mid-century revival.

Typewriters split cleanly: pre-1900s mechanical curiosities (collector treasure) and 20th-century production machines (decor-and-user market, with cult exceptions). Serial databases cover both.

Dating and identifying

Serials hide under carriages, on frames, behind panels; public databases (the typewriter serial archives) map most major brands to production years. Identification cues: understrike vs frontstrike (early machines typed underneath — you lifted the carriage to see your work; visible-writing frontstrikes conquer from the 1890s), index machines (no keyboard — a pointer selects letters; early and collectible), double keyboards (no shift — full upper and lower banks, e.g., Smith Premier), and oddities (Blickensderfer's type-wheel, Hammond's curved keyboard, the Oliver's bat-wing type-bars).

The two markets

The antique tier: 1870s–1890s machines — Sholes & Glidden (the first commercial typewriter, Remington-made, sometimes flower-decaled), early Remingtons, Hammonds, Blicks, Olivers, index machines — hundreds to many thousands, condition- and completeness-driven, with genuine rarities (Malling-Hansen balls, early prototypes) in museum money. The character tier: 1920s–1970s desk and portable machines — value is looks + function: glossy black flatteries, colored 1930s portables (burgundy, green!), streamlined Deco models, and the working-typewriter revival keeps users paying $50–300 for serviced portables. The cult exception: Olivetti Valentine (1969, red bucket design icon) and certain designer models trade like design objects.

Condition and the service question

Completeness first (platens, panels, cases), then function — machines seize from dried grease and mostly revive with careful cleaning; sympathetic service adds value in this working-object category, repainting subtracts at the antique tier. Decals and pinstriping originality matter exactly like Singer decals. Beware "aged" repro decals on restored-for-sale machines — coherence checks.

Workflow

Photograph full machine, serial, mechanism (type-bars up), any oddity (guide); the Antique Identifier app identifies mechanism-and-model class instantly; serial archives date; sold comps split the tiers — an Oliver No. 5 and an Underwood No. 5 photograph similarly and price a world apart.

The bottom line

Understrikes, indexes and double keyboards = the money tier; black desk classics = beloved decor; colored portables and the Valentine = design-market darlings. Serial dates it, mechanism tiers it, completeness prices it.

Values mentioned in this guide are indicative ranges from public auction and marketplace results; condition, provenance and market timing move them substantially. For insurance or estate purposes, get a written appraisal from a certified appraiser.