Craigslist Treasure

Last Friday morning, I was looking through the Craigslist ads for ‘Sewing Machine’. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, just looking to see if someone was selling a very special machine at an incredible price. (I don’t like to miss things like that!) I looked in all the areas around me in Iowa. Imagine my surprise when I saw this!

           

I used to have a ‘Parlor Cabinet’ JUST LIKE THIS years and years ago (like back in 1978 or so). I don’t even remember where I got the cabinet, but I had a modern Singer machine in it. One day, the plastic gears went out of my Singer, I bought a new machine, and gave the old machine and cabinet to someone I used to know, and I have never seen another cabinet like this since. The wood is solid tiger oak, with veneer on the doors. The design of this cabinet is exact to the last one I had. The doors have a curve to them.

                        

This time around, the cabinet has a machine in it. A Brunswick (Louie thinks it is pretty neat, since Brunswick is a billiard name, but we have no proof there is any connection). There is very little on the internet to tell me much about this, except that Brunswick was a brand of machine sold by Montgomery Ward before the stores started buying machines and putting their own name on them. The machine was made sometime in the LATE 1800’s. I can find nothing specific about the cabinet, except Google tells me the style of cabinet is ‘Parlor Cabinet’. I also have no idea who made the cabinet, as it is not Brunswick specific.

              

Our friends Amy @ A Quilting Sheep and her husband Russ went with us to pick it up. Russ helped Louie carry it upstairs and outside to the van. Amy and Russ live in the same town and directed us there. We all had fun looking at other treasures he had in his basement.

The man we bought this from turns 90 in October. He told me he remembers when his mother sewed on it. He also said that years later, his brother was cleaning out his mother’s house and asked if he wanted ‘Mom’s old sewing machine’, because if he didn’t, ‘it was going to the dump’. Thank God, he didn’t let it go to the dump! He said it has been in his basement ever since, and no one has sewn on it. Notice the ‘rag’ his mother pinned around the arm of the machine to stick pins into.

              

The other cabinet I had did not have this wonderful ornate treadle plate. I really wish I could come up with a manufacturing date, but late 1800’s will just have to do for now. Look at the curved cubby shelves. Too neat! (It does have an OLD odor, that will have to be addressed, but I can do that!)

               

I have part of the original manual, which includes a list of  all the parts to the machine, and the cost to replace each part. The machine bed is $3.00 and the arm is $3.00. The accessory box (complete…I guess that means with all the attachments inside) is 60cents. Most other parts are 10cents and 25cents. Some are $1.00.

                        

I ordered a new treadle belt for it last night, and when it comes, I will oil it all up, and make it sew. I also downloaded a pdf file of a copy of the manual. The downloaded manual is older than the manual I have, because the price of the bed on the downloaded manual is $2.50, and the accessory box—complete, is 50cents.

                      

How much did we pay?????  $70.

Thanks for letting me share. In a day or two, I’ll post pictures of another machine that came into my house last weekend, via eBay. It is getting some restorative work to it right now. You won’t believe it.

Be blessed,

Michelle