Today I found a
nice woman who lives within driving distance of me...and she happened to be selling off seven hand crank sewing machines! Joy! I went to look at them today and took home two of them.
I was seriously torn between a few of them...in the end I wound up dithering between an Ideal with beautiful decals and a box full of attachments (I'm a sucker for a rusty box full of a jumble of attachments) and a Bradbury. I took the Bradbury. I already have a box of attachments for my Singer 115 and a puzzle box of attachments for my Singer 27, so I figured I have enough gadgets lying around. Plus, this machine was from England! All my other machines are American.
Isn't it a beauty? I love the decals. The enamel is chipping off in places, but I still really like it.
The base is badly damaged, but after looking at it and emailing some pictures to my dad, I think it's within the realm of repair. We'll try.
Apparently it cracked while being shipped to this woman's house, and then it appears that an attachment wedged itself into the crack, which means the cracked pieces no longer fit together. If I can get that piece out I think it'll all come together again.
I don't know who this guy is, but from what I've Googled he's on all the Bradbury machines.
These decals make my heart swooooooooon. I did some Googling and I think the design is called Celtic Knot. This makes up for not owning a Singer with Celtic Knot decals.
The other machine I got is a transverse shuttle machine. I think this one is pre-1900s. I'm excited because I've been wanting to own a machine with a manufacture date in the 1800s. Unfortunately, it's in rough shape. A lot of the enamel is gone, and the decals are just history. Still, it's interesting.
The seller thought the machine was German, so I did a Google Image search for "antique German sewing machine badge" and matched this one up with the Durkopp Company. It makes sense because the bottom of the machine is stamped "D & Co."
The same symbol is on the base.
And what a base it is. So ornate. I love the female faces on the four corners and the ornate feet. Who does that anymore? It's also my one and only fiddle base machine.
That hand crank is seriously old school. See the faint chips of green and orange paint? I bet this machine had gorgeous paint back in its day.
The stitch length adjuster (I think) and the serial number...just four digits long. It's 2437. I'm dying to know how old this is.
Sadly, no shuttle...and I'm sure there's no hope in ever getting one.
I'm very pleased with them. I'm still researching them - I'm coming up with info for the Bradbury, but the Durkopp is really tough to research. We'll see what happens.
