Antique sewing machine, name ?

Davey, not at all sure but check out Wertheim Superba. May be a variant?

 

Tried to search term mop inlay sewing machines, there are too many. There is an online museum: http://www.sewmuse.co.uk/index.htm
@Shangas may recognize it.

 

From what I can see the configuration and decoration of the superba matches, except for the O at the end!!!

 

I'm sure this is no help, but: Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, had a cousin also named Elias Howe. The second Elias Howe founded a company which made banjos, including, in 1898, the Superbo. It may have had some mother of pearl, but there the similarity to the sewing machine ends.

 

@daveydempsey, I found this image, albeit a poor one....does your look like it might have been converted from a 'hand crank' one??? OR, better yet, is yours missing a hand crank???? This is close although not identical....reason for my question......

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=q3+XqnfG&id=527C3222A43B08EE18311C3CF5B4BD2357523583&thid=OIP.q3-XqnfG4zUGvdbPe7QVBQHaE6&mediaurl=http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/4/3/6/8/0/5/webimg/859940098_tp.jpg&exph=265&expw=400&q="china+train"+sewing+machine+-+antique+with+mop+inlay&simid=608014698038624716&selectedIndex=12&qpvt="china+train"+sewing+machine+-+antique+with+mop+inlay&ajaxhist=0

 

Did you see this one?

http://www.treadleandcrank.com/ebay/sm18-1.jpg

http://www.treadleandcrank.com/

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Antiq...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

It makes me wonder if whoever was doing the lettering on yours just was asleep at the wheel and used a "D" instead of an "A". Or maybe it's a really good knock off.

 

Haven’t really digested all posts here but first reaction is a wild guess that use of “O” vs “A” in trade name may be maker’s adaptation for sales in various countries, possibly Spanish-speaking ones in this case, but who knows for sure.

 

SIS......"you done real gud"!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My contribution, while called for, will be completely pointless now.

A Wertheim Superba 'D'. Made in Germany, probably 1870s-1900. Very old transverse-shuttle design. Germany was still making machines like this right up to WWII, believe it or not. When the rest of the world had gone onto round-bobbin electric machines, they were still quite literally, cranking out these old Victorian-era models, complete with the cranks on the sides.

Despite its age and antiquated design, this machine would've had features on it that, in 1900, would've been considered highly revolutionary. Helical cut gears, for better movement, and a spring-loaded automatic-stop bobbin winder mechanism. Some even came with forward-reverse gears.

Features like this wouldn't be seen on American machines until the 1920s and 30s at the very earliest. Many Singers didn't come with forward-reverse stitching until after WWII.

Due to the needles that the majority of transverse machines use, sewing with these machines is a complete crapshoot. Sometimes if you're lucky, you can get the needles, but if you can't - they make extremely effective doorstops. By the 1890s and 1900s, when the next-generation vibrating-shuttle machines were being made, needle-sizes for domestic machines were pretty-much standardised across the board, so that, providing everything else works, you can still get them sewing today.

 

even a last minute touchdown....scores points !

 

MoP and gold-leaf etc, were common on European machines in the 1800s and early 1900s. You have to remember that sewing machines were almost luxury items in their day. If you owned one, you had a lot of money (or were very good at managing not much money!).

They were very expensive. They were built to literally last forever. And they had to, because nobody would buy a machine that did not, because they cost so much to begin with. They were treated as functional, and practical works of art. You'd just spent several dollars on a sewing machine - you wanted it to look amazing!!

Something like that would've sat in a living room in the corner, or in the front parlour or sewing-room, and it would've been a talking-point, a conversation starter, a piece of decoration.

In 1895 or thereabouts, a machine like this would not have been cheap by any means.

 

Did anyone else ever see the Spanish-language TV show, The Time in Between? It came out 4 or 5 years ago, and I don't know if it ran for more than one season, but I remember seeing the first year of it (with subtitles...)

It was set in Tétouan, the capital of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco, during the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of World War II.

Anyway, one of the main characters was a seamstress from Madrid, living in Morocco, and she was always whipping up some amazing dress on her foot-pedal sewing machine.

I have no idea how old that machine was supposed to be, but it was nothing like even the old Singer my Mom had when I was a kid (let alone the machine I have today.)

Every time the film cut to her sewing, I lost track of the subtitles, since I was so intrigued just watching that machine do its thing!

 

Treadle sewing machines have been around since sewing machines were born. My grandmother used to have half a dozen of them in her shop.

 

When I was a child in England us girls FIRST had to learn hand sewing before we could use the very old treadle machines, I can still remember my feet learning to move properly in order to run the thing .. this was about 1955 so you can see how well these old machines held up .. Joy.