“New” additions to my Cabinet are often many hundreds of years old. Recently, however, I’ve acquired a truly state-of-the-art artifact: a lovely dark green N°5 Oliver Typewriter. Praised widely across America for its thoroughly modern design and innovative “batwing” style typebars, this handsome device now resides at my desk and will help me record my latest collections research at a far more rapid clip than ever before. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Thomas Oliver, a former Methodist minister from Iowa who—in his spare time and through his unexpected genius—designed a better typewriter. Reverend Oliver, now a full time man of business, was so enamored of the story of my collecting and my efforts to expand public understanding of the earliest ceramic history of this nation that he sent me this valuable machine as a gift. I could not imagine spending the nearly $100 such an item would cost! Needless to say, I am happily sending him a particular ceramic from my holdings, in gratitude. I am sure he will find a creative use for this eighteenth-century inkwell—perhaps a vase?—even if his invention may push the art of fine handwriting out of vogue and into the depths of history...
