I saw this treadle table on crag's list a few weeks ago. They wanted some real money for it. In the back ground were several other tables, that I was more interested in. So I called the guy, and it turned out that the others had been sold (sniff) but he wanted this one gone. I said something along the lines of "well, if you'll take $20 and deliver it to the town I live in, I'll buy it" I figured that would end it. He did it, and so I bought it. Question is, what is it?
I actually had to hose it off, it was so filthy. Then I wiped it down with mineral spirits, wire brushed the metal, wiped that with mineral spirits, and hit the whole thing up with some wax. I use a shoe polish brush for buffing the iron work after waxing. On first glance, I thought the top was warped. But when I looked closer, there had been a piece glued on that was ripped off. Looks like hide glue, so I should be able to get it off by wetting the glue ( hide glue is water soluble, which is why it is used in making musical instruments. Things can be taken apart non destructively for repair.) The holes for the treadle belt are there, I'm guessing the two grooves perpendicular to the front edge secured the dust cover/ coffin top of the machine. The cut out is really small, though.
Nice little detail on the iron work. Here's the after shot. You can see how tiny the flywheel is, and that the original wooden pit man rod is still there. Little drawer in front, too. Notice how the treadle is off center to the left. This assured that the machine operator sat directly in front of the needle, and was early ergonomics, preventing a twist in the back while working.
I'm not sure where it will even fit in the house. O suppose I could sit the hand crank on top of it, but something will have to go to make room for it. I'd rather find a home for it with someone who has an orphan machine head that it goes with.
5 comments:
Hello, I have a friend who has a book of many machines and I will look through it the next time I see her. I love the art deco of this base. It matches a machine I have from Netherlands. Which by the way is frozen right now. Working on unfreezing.
Fascinating, I hope you find out what it is. the interesting thing to me is the tiny flywheel. when I first saw it I figured the flywheel was missing.
This is a Singer 12 base. The original bonnet top would have been a fold down to make the top of the table larger for sewing. The small wheel and wooden pitman are identical to mine (complete). The Singer 12 base with removable bonnet top did not have the wide skirt with the drawer and did not have the cast iron extensions to attach to the top above the curley cues. Nice buy...hope this helps! Doug MARLOW
congrats on a nice find at a great price. If it lived with me, I'd put my featherweight on it so I could sew in the living room (and thereby take over every room in the house with sewing machines and fabric!)
What a labor of love. Fascinating, and well done.
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