Olivetti Lettera 10

It’s a portable typewriter, with its briefcase integrated in the typewriter. It has very basic functions, with margins, margin bypass, interline, a blocking mechanism for transportation.

It's a typewriter that isn't very well-loved by the typist, and had very small success in the market.

It's very light, that is good for transportation, but not for the use. The feeling when you use it, is that it’s a toy typewriter, it also sounds like plastic on plastic, and the plastic body doesn't give the impression of robustness.

This typewriter needs a cartridge specific for it, that can be used also on the Olivetti Lettera 12 and the Lettera 52. In theory it was a good idea to have a cartridge, because there were many colors available, red, blue, black and green, it’s also easier to change.
But it’s also difficult to find, now as then.
The ribbon is also very short, only 2 mt, so it gets exhausted soon and it had to be replaced frequently.
If you have to write something in red you have to change all the cartridge, and then you have to put back again the black one.

But I think it’s a interesting piece to have in a collection. It has a particular design, and a unique ribbon system. The design of this typewriter was curated by Mario Bellini, who had already designed other successful Olivetti typewriters

If you want more information on its use and history, you can take a look at this video.

Here there is a leaflet on the Olivetti Lettera 12, its sister.