Typewriter manufacturers regularly gifted machines to royalty, but, in this case, Spain’s King Alfonso purchased one for himself, even receiving a typing lesson from a local agent in Madrid. The king’s Underwood No. 5 was finished in white enamel, and it was the second such machine, the first going to the Czar of Russia. Because white paint dried slowly (taking days or weeks), it was more expensive than black paint, and was rarely applied. Such a machine were exceptional prior to the mid-1920s.
The Penman’s Art Journal (New York), August 1907 –
American Exporter (New York), September 1908 –
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