A typewriter owned and used by Orson Welles is on the auction block this month.
The prestigious Bonhams auction house in London is set to sell off the Royal typewriter on Wednesday, November 16, according to Katherine Schofield, Bonhams’ Popular Culture & Collectors department director.
The typewriter can be viewed online at bonhams.com/auction/27389/lot/5/orson-welles-typewriter. It is expected to fetch between £5,000 and £7,000, roughly $5,900 to $8,200.
The typewriter has been kept for decades by Welles’ longtime friend Juan Cobos, who served as assistant director on Chimes at Midnight. It comes with a with letter of provenance from the Estate of Orson Welles.
Daughter Beatrice Welles told Bonhams it was one of two typewriters her father used during the 1930s and 1940s. “My father was never without a couple of typewriters… there was always a typewriter or more and he wrote everything on them… every moment he had free he would spend writing a new project or script, that’s all I can remember in the 28 years that I spent with him.”
Welles first visited Spain in the early 1930s as a teenager, where he spent time in Seville. His love for the country lasted the rest of his life. Welles owned a property in Madrid, and he is buried in Ronda, Spain.
According to Bonhams, the item was manufactured by Royal Typewriter Co. Inc. of New York, circa 1931. It has a black body and frame and bears the serial number P283613. The original hinged black carrying case, appears in working order but in need of cleaning, oiling, and ribbon replacement.
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