1919 Victor 3 #23114
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Brian Decker (bkdecker66)
Created: 03-27-2026 at 12:54PM
Last Edit: 03-29-2026 at 06:04AM
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Description:
2026-March-29 Update. Kind of an afterthought, but this Victor 3 came with a nice R. C. Allen Business Machine cover that was folded up tightly in a plastic sleeve. Stained, but a good-quality cover. Added a photo of it installed on the Victor; fits very well, though I'm tempted to put in on one of my Woodstock 5's.
2026-March-27 Gallery Creation. I thought my days of purchasing full-sized office typewriters on eBay were over, but then this Victor Model 3 showed up. It was being sold out of Penn Yan, NY, to benefit the Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society. They had a "Buy It Now" asking price of $450, but they also had a "Make An Offer" option. I proposed $325, and they accepted without any quibbling, closing the deal on 3-17-26. They had never shipped a typewriter before, but I provided them with the usual warnings about brittle, old cast-iron antique typewriters, and recommended they ship in a styrofoam-lined box. They overachieved, charging only $30 for shipping, and packaging it securely (and somewhat ironically) in a Brother brand laser printer box, and it arrived safely. Now to find space for it!
The photos in the gallery are of the typewriter in "as received" condition. No cleaning or typing sample yet, but that will come. It is a wide-carriage version, which seems to be in the minority in the database. Somebody seems to have taped around the platen with yellow/gold tape, I assume for an ornamental effect. The type slug foundry marks indicate Victor's version of Pica typeface.
I have to wonder about the year of production. Estimating from linear-rate production, one gets early 1919. However, the TWDB information indicates that Victor had moved manufacturing to Scranton, PA by then; this machine's decals indicate it was manufactured in NYC, which might imply a manufacture date of 1917 and much slower production after that year.
I will add a comment that I LOVE the form factor of this typewriter. The low-profile shape brings to my mind the "step-down" architecture of the Hudson motor-cars of the early 1950s. In general, this Victor falls into what is probably my favorite period of typewriter history, when there were still a number of "also ran" makes in production; these seemed to fall away very rapidly into the 1920s.
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: Brian Decker (bkdecker66)
Brian Decker's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 2405
My interest in typewriters started in 1997, when I was in graduate school at the University of Georgia. I purchased and read Darryl Rehr's book, joined ETC, and started reaching out to known collectors. I had several email interchanges with Richard Polt dating from that period. I also bought some of my first machines from Bob Aubert, and visited him at his home twice. After marriage and relocation to New England, I continued visiting antique shops and eBay, until other priorities put my typewriter hobby on hiatus around 2008.
In late 2024, I started up again, working on my machines and having some of them serviced professionally by New England Typewriter (NET) LLC (Merrimack, NH), until they closed their doors in December of 2025. Since mid-2025, I have been adding to my collection again, first with a Hermes 3000 purchase from NET, then with various auctions and purchases on eBay, when I find something that catches my eye.
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Victor 3 on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Victor Serial Number page and the Victor 3 By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.
