My New Home comes complete with a treadle! I just need a new belt.
The New Home close up
I started off looking for a serial number. There wasn't an obvious one like the Singers. I looked all over the darn thing and finally found the only thing that could be a serial number on the bobbin cover slide plate.
I searched through many of the sites I mentioned in yesterday's blog and was lucky enough to find a few entries about New Home on the ISMACS website. Their page on New Home serial numbers is here. If the number on the slide plate is indeed the serial number, then this lady was made in 1919. The slide plate also bears the following inscription: "New Home" S.M. Co. Orange, Mass U.S.A. A quick check of another ISMACS page covering the company's history verified that the New Home factory was indeed located in Orange, Massachusetts during the year this machine was made. So far so good!
Until I tried to find a manual that is. ISMACS has a page here with some New Home manuals, but my excitement didn't last long. Their manuals cover machines with rotary type bobbins, and a quick check under the slide plate of my machine revealed something I'd never seen before-
The heck???
More frantic searching revealed that this machine uses a vibrating shuttle to carry a long, thin bobbin spool. You can see photos of this type of bobbin assembly and get a lesson on how to wind and load them here (his is for a singer, but they look very similar). So now what?
The Smithsonian to the rescue! The Smithsonian has collected a vast amount of literature concerning American made sewing machines and has made much of it available through a searchable online database here. There are manuals, trade cards, catalogs, warranties and more! Many of their items haven't been scanned yet, so they're only described. However, they seem to have made special effort to get the manuals in their possession scanned; I was able to view pdfs of at least one manual for every brand of machine I looked for (well, except the Jones, but that's because she's British). They had only one New Home manual that was for a slightly different model of machine, but it is very similar to mine and includes the same type of bobbin shuttle so I'm calling it close enough.
Satisfied by what I'd managed to gather so far, I confidently turned to researching my last vintage machine, the Jones.
Sadly, she's missing her treadle. It was broken when the antique dealer's van blew a tire, causing
another piece to slam into it. I'm keeping my eye out for another treadle base for it.
The serial number is prominently displayed in the same location as the Singers; on the right hand front side of the bed. The beautiful decals elegantly proclaim that this machine was made in England.
The bobbin cover plate even helpfully reads "PAT. OCT. 4TH, 1889, No 15597".
Even more ornate decoration proudly proclaims that it is a "Spool" model. With all this wealth of information already handed to me, surely I'd be able to date the machine and find a manual! Off I went to search...
...and I came up with almost nothing. Oh sure, I found some histories of the company here and here, but my efforts to date the machine or find a manual came up dry. I couldn't even track down the patent. The Smithsonian sewing machine literature collection was no help; they've only got records pertaining to American machines. I found a manual for a Jones Family C.S. model, but its thread path is very different than the Spool and it uses the vibrating shuttle mentioned earlier. My Jones has a round side loading bobbin.
I pulled her out of the cabinet and removed the slide plate so you can see the bobbin housing
I finally found this minimalist set of instructions for the Spool at the ISMACS site. It's super short, but it will do! How I missed it in the first place is a mystery.
Somewhere along the line (don't recall where) I stumbled across a page that mentioned that all the records pertaining to the serial numbers of these machines were destroyed by one of the Jones brothers. If this is indeed true, it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to date this machine exactly. But while I was browsing through the few private collections and museum pieces I found I began to suspect this gal was older than any of my other machines. By comparing her serial number to those of other Jones Spool machines that have dates associated with them I found that this machine was likely made in the early 1890's. Whoa!
Further supporting that theory is the fact that the words "Her Royal Approval", "Royal Approval Queen Alexandra" or "as supplied
to HRH Queen Alexandra" do not appear anywhere on my machine. According to various histories, the Jones brothers received a
testimonial approved by the Princess of Wales lauding the performance of
their machines. They got permission to mark future machines with
references to the Princess (later Queen). So far as I understand, all of their machines, no matter the model, bore some variation of the Royal Approval inscription from the mid 1890's on. You can see an example of one type of inscription on the shoulder of this machine, surrounding the "Family C.S." decal. Since mine doesn't have any mention of royalty anywhere on it, it supports the theory that it was made in the early 1890's.
The last bit of supporting evidence is the center rose decal on the machine bed. The rose design appears to have been used on early versions of the Spool and Family C.S. models, but was quickly replaced by a medallion style decal.
None of this conclusively proves anything, but the more evidence I accumulate, the more sure I can be when guessing when my machine might have been made. I've got some more poking around through museum collections and digging up of histories to do, but hopefully I will eventually be able to say with some confidence that my Jones is a late Victorian sewing machine!
To date other types of machines or find their manuals, check out these links-
www.sew2go.com/wgdate.htm- Manufacture dates for Wilcox & Gibbs machines
www.treadleon.net/whitesm/whites.html- Dating White machines
www.singerco.com/admin-support/machine-serial-numbers- Dating Singer machines
www.singerco.com/accessories/instruction-manuals- Singer manuals
www.sewmuse.co.uk/bradbury/bradburyindex.htm- Bradbury machines
www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/trade-literature/sewing-machines/CF/index.cfm- The Smithsonian's collection of sewing machine literature. Find manuals here.
www.sewalot.com/sewalot_index.htm- Large index of sewing machine brands and related things
www.ismacs.net/home.html- Fantastic searchable site with loads of information on all sorts of machines. Try out multiple variations of your search terms for best results.
Remember, if there are no serial number lists available for your machine, get creative with your search! Collect all the information you can and cross reference it every which way. Examine your machine for clues. Bobbin cover slide plates are often engraved with company names and logos, patent numbers, serial numbers, etc. Words entwined in the decorative scrollwork offer more clues. Compare your machine to others of its type; how are they similar or different? Search through museum catalogs and private collections. Look up the history of the company to verify that they had active factories where and when you think your machine was made. You may never be sure, but you'll have far more information that when you started!
Now that I've got the 411 on my lovelies, it's time to start fixing them up. Next I'll be showing you the guts of my little Singer 99.
