Posted 3 years ago
JacM1966
(1 item)
My great grandmother's singer sewing machine which she bought in 1902 and kept the receipt. It's a 27K sphinx model with some tools. Much loved and used by my great grandmother and great aunts over the years.
Hi, JacM1966. :-)
That is so cool that you have your great grandmother's sewing machine, complete with the sales receipt.
So she paid 9 pounds and change (I'm not all that familiar with old pence, so I can't work out what the 12 and the 6 mean), which was probably quite a handsome sum back in 1902.
That machine certainly is a member of the VS1, VS2, VS3, 27, 28, 127 and 128 family of machines with that distinctive trapezoidal access panel, the circular needle/throat plate, and the split slide plates:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Singer.Model27.IdentificationGuide.jpg
The receipt makes it clear that it was made at Singer's Kilbowie factory (not merely a model 27, but a 27K).
If that number on the receipt (13987729) is the serial number, then it falls into this group:
13,388,000 14,047,999 1896
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-no-prefix-serial-numbers.html
If that number isn't the serial number, then if you could take a picture of the serial number cartouche and add it to your post, it would be appreciated:
https://www.singermachines.co.uk/pub/media/upload/image/model_5.jpg
Anyway, about the Singer VS1, VS2, VS3, 27, 28, 127 and 128 family:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/28
A manual for the model 27:
http://www.sewmuse.co.uk/Singer%20VS%202%20Model%2027%20Manual.pdf
Your decal set:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/decals/decal12
Your cabinet looks like a more elaborate version of Cabinet Table No. 1:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/cabinet_table_no_1.html
About the Kilbowie factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/kilbowie
There's still a railway station called Singer on the north-eastern corner of where the plant used to be in Kilbowie:
Singer
Kilbowie Rd, Clydebank G81 2JN, United Kingdom
https://goo.gl/maps/kwK4GbG6zeu2xhBi9
A circa 1934 documentary made at the Kilbowie factory (even though this was about three decades after your great grandmother bought her machine, that family of machines was still popular, and starting at around 17:10 in the segment where a worker is applying a decal set to a machine head, you can see the hole in it where the trapezoidal access panel will be installed):
https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/1592
One more catch-all link in case I forgot anything (but if you have any specific questions, and don't want to plow through all of that, just ask here in a comment):
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-vintage-sewing-machine-help
Thank you for showing us your great grandmother's machine. :-)
JacM1966, I had to brush up on my understanding of old pence. I think the thing that made me feel uncertain was the short hand on the receipt:
£9-,,12,,6
Like a stereotypical Yank, I could interpret the £9 correctly, but was left in doubt by the 12 and 6.
Of course, had they written them as 12s and 6d, I still probably would have asked myself, "What the heck is 6d?" };-)
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/weightsandmeasures/money.aspx
Per this website, the amount your great grandmother paid for her machine in 1902 (£9 12s 6d) would now cost somewhere in the neighborhood of £1,053.00:
https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php?year_early=1902£71=9&shilling71=12&pence71=6&amount=9.625&year_source=1902&year_result=2019
Oh, and to help make some sense of the modern Google Satellite view of the Kilbowie area with regard to the Singer plant:
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1257701
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1257702
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1257703
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1257704
Thank you so much for all this info keramikos. As I live in the west of Scotland I am familiar with Kilbowie and Singer areas.
JacM1966, You're welcome. :-)