+ABOUT

Laura & Rob Prather

Welcome to Jot & Tittle Vintage Typewriters! We’re Laura & Rob. In 2018, I (Laura) was wanting to start writing but step away from the digital world at the same time. I wondered if typewriters were still around. At the time, Rob managed a Goodwill store in Woodland Park, CO so I asked if he ever saw typewriters. He said they came through ever so often but no one really wanted them. While he waited for one to come through the store, I searched online only to find VERY expensive restored (and insanely gorgeous) machines. I fell in love with them but they were not in the budget. I also looked locally and found one on an online marketplace. Having zero idea of what to look for expect, I purchased my first typewriter, a 1962 Royal Signet. (You can read about it here).

Rob also found a few with his connections and they were very inexpensive. Being a business owner, I immediately wondered if we could resell them—more as a hobby than anything else.

After mentioning our idea on Facebook, someone reached and said she would buy our first one. I thought, “Huh. What do ya’ know?”

I set up a proper Etsy shop, Rob set up a card table in the living room with an old, broken lamp and we began to fumble our way of learning about typewriters. That was in August of 2018 and by the end of that year, in 4 months, we sold over 100 vintage typewriters!

TOM HANKS TYPEWRITER

In March 2023, we received a suprise email, followed by a surprise package, from PlayTone (the production company of Tom Hanks). In the box was this SIGNED 1957 Voss De Luxe in burgundy along with a letter! What an honor and delight to receive such a gift.

TODAY:

Currently, Rob and I live in a little town on Table Rock Lake and enjoy our lake view. Our little typewriter shop is in our home and we continue the vintage typewriter business on a part-time basis. Rob has a management job in Springfield, MO and I am the publisher/editor/designer/writer for a magazine. However, we have grown a wonderful community of typewriter enthusiasts and still connect with them weekly, as well as continue to provide vintage typewriters and accessories in our online shop.