The legandary Corona Three Folding Typewriter

The Corona Three was a portable typewriter manufactured by the Corona Typewriter Company, later part of the Smith-Corona Typewriter Company.

Is many of the early typewriters were huge beasts, small, portable typewriters were being attempted by a few companies. Fox created a folding typewriter (which Corona later sued out of business), as well as Hammond. Parts of the Blickensderfer folded.

Though the folding mechanism is eccentric and seems odd now, the Corona Three holds up surprisingly well to time. It was introduced around 1912 and remained in production until 1941, making it an extremely popular typewriter model for nearly three decades.

Somehow, it was the first and last great folder.

While ultraportable machines of the 50’s, the Groma Kolibri, the Olympia SF, the Princess, and the Hermes Baby / Rocket can be great, a lot of people like to get the page higher up off of the keyboard for easy view. The Corona Three does this quite well’ perhaps better than its European counterparts.

Lawrence Durrell uses a Corona Three in The Durrells in Corfu after he smashes his Corona Four. I was surprised by this ‘reversal’ of machines, going back to the prior model, until I noticed how long the Corona Three run actually was. The ‘later’ Corona Four was manufactured from 1924 to the early 1950s. So there are a few decades there were the 3 and 4 were produced, meaning it was not an easy usurpation.

Both come in some fascinating colors, like the famous Corona Four in Lavender and Rose Gold (of which I’ve had two, and still have one now), Mountain Ash Scarlett, and a few others. The Corona Three Special came in Black and Gold, gloss black, blue, and bright red.

The Corona Three is tiny, light, beautiful, and a conversation piece. The folding mechanism is quite robust, in my experience.

Write on,

Steven Budden Jr.

Classic Typewriter Co. | Chapel Hill, NC

A few pictures to follow: