eBaywatch, 13th September 2026: Olivetti
Category: Buy Secondhand
When the word technology meant mechanics rather than electronics, Olivetti was a tech giant. During much of the 20th century it created a series of hugely popular typewriters that were used by, well, nearly everyone who wanted to put words on paper. Apparently, Joan Didion, Fidel Castro, Philip Larkin, Joan Collins, Pope Pius XII and many more all used Olivetti typewriters.
Not only was Olivetti good at making typewriters (and other business machines like calculators and later computers), it was also a champion of design and progressive business practices. In the early years of the 20th century, the company begin creating a new campus in Ivrea outside Turin. In effect, a company town designed to provide a more humane environment for employees to live and work in. Buildings were designed by many of the most renowned modernist architects of the era.
Source: Daniel Stone but possibly lifted from The New York Times
Meanwhile, in the 1950s, after Carlo Scarpa won the National Olivetti Award for Architecture, the company commissioned him to design Olivetti’s showroom in Venice.
So the company has some serious credentials when it comes to design. What can we find on ebay right now? Well, lots of typewriters for a start.
The most obvious, and most collectable, is the Valentine. Designed in 1968 by Ettore Sottsass, it was so successful a design that he lamented, according the The Met’s write up, he’d be forever associated with it alone. His American Pie, as it were. I suspect it’s the first (only?) portable typewriter where the case isn’t either a completely separate box or a lid that fits vertically over the machine. Sottsass’s alternative approach to stowage makes me think of an ice lolly mould.
There a few available right now on ebay. This one appears to be in the best overall condition, complete with manual and some original accessories.
Or there’s this one with a broken box for less.
If you fancy channeling either Francis Ford Coppola or Sister Wendy, there are plenty of Lettera 32s, the model they both used. This looks like a clean and tidy one.
Here’s a lovely example of a Lettera 22, the 32’s predecessor, made at the plant in Glasgow. Possibly the model Joan Collins is using, above.
The Dora is another good looking machine. This one looks in fine nick.
There are bags of others but as there’a a limit to how many typewriters you want to gawp at, I’ll wrap this section up here. However, if you do fancy a lump of retro technology that will not only look good on your desk but also give you some off-grid peace while you type your memoire, you could check out other tasty Olivetti models such as the DL and the Studio 45.
I mentioned Olivetti made office calculators too. The Summa 19 was Sottsass’s follow up to the Valentine (here’s a short interactive explainer courtesy of West Virginia University). On ebay right now, there’s an apparently functioning example. (Unfortunately not the lime green colourway.)
Also notable is the Divisumma 18 designed by Mario Bellini. (Yet another Olivetti in the MoMA collection). Here’s a short demo.
Those buttons makes me think of Teenage Engineering’s OP-1. Anyway, here’s a beat up example.
As you might expect of such a design-forward business, their advertising was on point. There are very few original posters available in the UK apart from this - I imagine - 40s thing. But there are, as for most vintage posters, sellers hawking reproductions. If that’s your bag, take a look at these. The designs are beautiful, which just makes me all the more focussed on the originals. Here a few from overseas sellers.
This Milton Glaser design is gorgeous, isn’t it? Just the right amount of surreal.
Here’s a - by the looks of it - schlonky reproduction of another Milton Glaser. An original came up for auction in New York a few years back.
And here’s a third Glaser, this time from 1993, for an early Olivetti laptop.
If you want to roll the dice on the import duties and shipping from Japan, this is a poster of Olivetti calculators in what looks like the window of the Venice showroom, including the lime green Summa 19 I mentioned earlier.
And finally, to bring things full circle, how about this Ettore Sottsass design for the Philos 44 laptop? Reminds me of that brief trend for invisible screen wallpapers.
That’s it for this week.
Happy hunting.
Want to be more Decmatic?
Want a nourishing shot of inspiration and ideas like this injected directly to your inbox every week? Subscribe from free here >