Ettore Sottsass Olivetti Valentine Typewriter C. 1960's

About the Item

Designed by Ettore Sottsass and Peter King, the typewriter is housed in the permanent collection of the MoMa as an excellent example of pop art. The typewriter also presaged Sottsass' own evolution before becoming and influential member of the Memphis school, breaking free of the design conventions of his day. QWERTY keyboard. Typewriter: 3 7/8 × 12 3/4 × 13 1/2 in., 9.3 lb. Cover: 4 3/8 × 13 1/2 × 13 7/8 in., 2.4 lb. Very Good Vintage condition: Some light soiling in tight crevices and hard to reach areas with accumulation between keys and inside machine as expected from a piece of this age. Scuffs and lights marks of use throughout, but more apparent on top of typewriter, near "valentine" logo. I am not a typewriter technician, however the machine has been tested to the best of my ability and seems in good working condition. Ink ribbon seems a bit dry, but still works as seen in photos.

Creator:

Olivetti (Manufacturer),Ettore Sottsass (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 4.5 in (11.43 cm)Width: 13.5 in (34.29 cm)Depth: 14 in (35.56 cm)

Style:

Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Metal,Plastic

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1960-1969

Date of Manufacture:

1968

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. Some light soiling in tight crevices and hard to reach areas with accumulation between keys and inside machine as expected from a piece of this age. Scuffs and lights marks of use throughout, but more apparent on top of typewriter.

Seller Location:

Locust Valley, NY

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU6683229338142

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Shop All Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass

An architect, industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, Ettore Sottsass led a revolution in the aesthetics and technology of modern design in the late 20th century.

Sottsass was the oldest member of the Memphis Group — a design collective, formed in Milan in 1980, whose irreverent, spirited members included Alessandro Mendini, Michele de Lucchi, Michael Graves and Shiro Kuramata. All had grown disillusioned by the staid, black-and-brown “corporatized” modernism that had become endemic in the 1970s. Memphis (the name stemmed from the title of a Bob Dylan song) countered with bold, brash, colorful, yet quirkily minimal designs for furniture, glassware, ceramics and metalwork. They mocked high-status by building furniture with inexpensive materials such as plastic laminates, decorated to resemble exotic finishes such as animal skins. Their work was both functional and — as intended — shocking. Even as it preceded the Memphis Group's formal launch, Sottsass's iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell and radical pops of pink neon — embodies many of the collective's postmodern ideals.

Sottsass's most-recognized designs appeared in the first Memphis collection, issued in 1981 — notably the multihued, angular Carlton room divider and Casablanca bookcase. As pieces on 1stDibs demonstrate, however, Sottsass is at his most imaginative and expressive in smaller, secondary furnishings such as lamps and chandeliers, and in table pieces and glassware that have playful and sculptural qualities.

It was as an artist that Ettore Sottsass was celebrated in his life, in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 2006, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art a year later. Even then Sottsass’s work prompted critical debate. And for a man whose greatest pleasure was in astonishing, delighting and ruffling feathers, perhaps there was no greater accolade. That the work remains so revolutionary and bold — that it breaks with convention so sharply it will never be considered mainstream — is a testament to his genius.