What do you think of when someone says "wood paneling"? Perhaps the 1970s? Your own wainscoted dining room? Wooden appliances? Even today you can find wood paneled appliances hiding out in kitchens (Caruso, n.d.) or on walls (Highsmith, 2017).
I remember having a wood paneled living room when I was growing up in the 1980s. The knots in the wood simulated eyes in the dark! Wood paneling was used on walls as early as the Gothic period of architecture (Paneling, 2011) to make a home constructed of stone walls warmer, and to add interior decoration (Panelling, 2017). Eventually this feature became mostly for decorative use.
Have you seen the old station wagons (No Photographer, 1954)? We had a "woodie" station wagon in the late 1980s which faithfully took us on summer car trips across the northern and western continental states. This popular "color" for cars has been around at least since the 1930s, and was originally designed to assist with the structure of the car. Later, metal and vinyl replaced the wood, but apparently people still liked the wooden appearance. (Woodie, 2018).
Now, have you ever thought of a wood paneled typewriter? Yes, Royal made a portable model P with metal made to simulate a wooden texture and color!
We came across this rare creature covered in blue at one of our favorite haunts just west of Charlotte. It looked like someone had poured a bottle of pen ink over the keys and let it drip wherever it pleased. The raised Royal printed on the paper plate first caught my attention.
As we approached, we noticed there was something strange about the color: it looked like wood! Flashes of journeys taken in the 1980s station wagon of my youth appeared as we resolved to take this thing of the past home. A new kind of journey commenced as my husband cleaned it up to make it shine!
As fortune would have it, while on that journey, my husband made another discovery as he was cleaning the type heads: apparently this beauty was a special ordered typewriter with Vogue font (Polt, n.d.)! Now we always check the font before we pass on a machine!
References
Caruso, I. B. (n.d.). Disguise your appliances. Retrieved from https://www.bobvila.com/articles/451-disguise-your-appliances/
Highsmith, C. M. (2017, October 16). [Wood paneling. U.S. Custom House, New Bedford, Massachusetts] [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://lccn.loc.gov/2017650041
No Photographer. (1954). [A 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon] [Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://lccn.loc.gov/97512836
Paneling. (2011, May 3). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/paneling
Panelling. (2017, December 8). In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panelling
Polt, R. (n.d.). Royal Vogue. Retrieved from http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/royalvogue.html
Woodie (car body style). (2018, March 1). In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodie_(car_body_style)