After years of blogging, my husband decided that I should own a typewriter. I had always wanted one, but had never pulled the trigger. He presented me with my first manual typewriter, a 1961 Royal Futura 800.
A year and a half later, I’m the proud owner of 13 manual typewriters ranging from extremely odd and somewhat rare to more current vintages, 1906 to 1977.
Today I want to show you one I picked up in Turkey last Fall. It’s a 1977 Adler Contessa Deluxe. Made in Holland, it has what I like to call the “German keyboard,” the QWERTZ layout complete with umlauts. (For reference, the English keyboard is a QWERTY layout.” I love the taxi yellow color!
If you are looking for a typewriter in Ankara, need one repaired, or just love to look at these types of machines, I’ve got a guy in Mamak (near IKEA).
He also sells and repairs mechanical calculators and record players. We bought this beauty a few years ago, a Grundig radio and record player. It still works and gets my favorite Philly radio station, WXPN.
I believe his adorable shop is mostly open by appointment. He doesn’t speak English, so you may need to bring along a Turkish-speaking friend to assist. You can find him on Sahibinden by searching for “daktilo” and narrowing your search down to Ankara. Any typewriters listed in Mamak are his. He also posts his vintage items on Instagram, “daktilo_pikap_antika”.
I love antiquing and I miss doing it in Ankara!
Adventures in Ankara 
Good morning! As someone who loves tinkering, taking stuff apart and putting it together again fit-for-purpose I really identify with this passion of yours. My pride and joy is still my 1936 RCA Victor AR88LF communications receiver which is still in perfect working order – which is a good thing as it takes two to lift it! Another quirk is sniffing the old books from my bookshelves – Ahhh, memories are made of this.
Alan, oh how I miss you!