Olivetti MP1 (Ico)Olivetti's first portable

Until 1932 Olivetti made office standards. The MP1, “macchina portatile 1,” was its first portable, and the shield on the front reads ICO, for Ingegnere Camillo Olivetti, which is why collectors usually call it the Ico even though that was never its model name. Aldo Magnelli styled the cast-alloy body and Riccardo Levi engineered it; roughly 140,000 were made through 1950, many in colors that made it as much a design object as a writing machine. It folds down onto a fabric-covered base for travel. As a typer it is basic by later standards, but it is the art-deco starting point of the Olivetti portable lineage that the Lettera 22 and 32 would carry to its peak.