Before a brief detour into history -- because Remington is such a historic typewriter brand -- here's a quick video of this machine at work:
1956 Remington Standare typewriter at work
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The Typewriter Database, the internet's definitive source for typewriter serial number information, has detailed records for the machines made by Remington. This Remington Standard, with serial number J-2688473, can be dated not just to its year of manufacture but to the month: August of 1956.
Remington introduced the J prefix in 1939 on its flagship office machine, the Model 17. After pausing manufacture of typewriters to concentrate on production of military supplies during the peak of World War II (as did nearly all the American typewriter companies), Remington briefly used the JC prefix before reverting to the J designation in 1945. Remington introduced its successor to the Model 17 in 1950, calling it the Super Riter Standard -- featuring new bodywork but much the same proven design inside. The J-Series machine you see here, called simply the Standard, was produced from 1956 to 1959. Having worked on typewriters from this series dating back to prewar examples of the Model 17, I can tell you that mechanically they're all very similar.
One of the highly-promoted features of these Remingtons is what the salespeople called its Fold-a-Matic design. Once the body shell is removed (just four screws do the work), this typewriter can be opened up like a book for easy access to the internals. I didn't need to disassemble to this extent in my work with this machine because everything is working so nicely, but it's a feature I'm sure typewriter technicians appreciated in the day. In one of his blog entries, Ted Munk -- creator and curator of the Typewriter Database -- calls the Fold-A-Matic design "an amazing feature to have on an already awesome machine."
This Remington Standard, weighing close to 31 pounds and featuring a compact 11-inch platen, was built for heavy typing service in an office environment. Typewriters like this one, as author Richard Polt explains in his wonderful book, "The Typewriter Revolution," were designed "to produce millions of words and last for decades." Polt describes this model as "a gray, jowly machine but a fine typewriter despite its stodgy looks." However we might disagree on the aesthetics, I do agree with Mr. Polt that this is a formidable writing machine.
Cosmetics of this typewriter (remember, it's two-thirds of a century old!) are good. My guess: one reason for its condition is that the machine comes with its original dust cover. The Standard's side panels are steel; its ribbon cover is cast aluminum, and that band around the cover is not an applied piece but simply a raised area brushed down to the bare metal. The typing action is quick and comfortable and the carriage return falls to hand nicely. The front panel has a touch control at the left and a ribbon-setting lever at the right. I've installed a fresh ribbon good for several hundred pages of work.
I've refurbished and sold more than 700 typewriters here on eBay and I encourage you to peruse my seller feedback. I pack with care, ship promptly and enjoy responding to questions from new owners getting started with their machines. Thanks for reading.