1922 Underwood 5 #1590029

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Brian Decker (bkdecker66)
Created: 11-16-2025 at 12:54PM
Last Edit: 01-11-2026 at 02:49PM

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Description:

This Underwood Model 5 has an unusual typeface (see attached samples); I do not know what it is called, but it is 10-pitch, so maybe in the Pica family. I purchased it for $40 at Treasures Antiques & Collectibles in Amherst, NH, on 3/29/2008. This was one of the last two typewriters I purchased, both on 3/29/08, before I stopped collecting for 17.5 years, until November 2025, when I bought a Hermes 3000 (see linked gallery). The other typewriter I found on 3/29/08 was my Corona Four, #2K13611 (see linked gallery).

Apart from a new set of feet, it has not yet been restored. Many years after purchase, I finally typed a sample on it, and realized it has an unusual typeface Both upper-case and lower case "E" are sans serif and modern-looking. The lower-case "d" has a very compact belly. The rest of the keys look relatively ordinary to me. I thought this was probably a one-off, where someone in the past wanted a unique look, or was hard up to replace their "E" key and all-caps was all they had available. However, when I visited Matt Snyder at New England Typewriter LLC on 11-14-25, he told me that he had actually seen this before: an Underwood 5 with just the "E" key in all-caps typeface! A customer had come in with such a machine, asking if Matt could replace that oddball "E" key, which he didn't do. Perhaps there was a business at one time that used this keyset for a distinctive style?

Typeface Specimen:

Links:

• Link to my Hermes 3000 gallery, the next machine I purchased 17.5 years later!
• Link to gallery for the Corona 4 that I bought on the same day as this Underwood!

Photos:

Right quadrant.

Right.

Serial number.

Back.

Patent dates.

Left rear quadrant.

Left.

Left quadrant.

Paper table detail.

Sales receipt.

Typing sample.

Hunter: Brian Decker (bkdecker66)

Brian Decker's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 1440

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. I still have my collection of around 57 machines, and now I have a renewed interest in getting some of them in good working and cosmetic order.