1881 Singer 12 - Mother of Pearl

 

 This sewing machine is a fairly new acquisition of mine.  It's an 1881 Singer model 12 with Mother of Pearl inlay.  Serial number 4484704.

  I spotted this machine for sale on FB market place a few months ago.  The pictures in the ad were not super clear so I couldn't tell the condition of the machine but it was obviously a MOP 12.  It looked nice....I just couldn't tell how nice.  Being very excited I immediately sent the owner a message and he quickly responded.  I made arrangements and went to look at the machine that very night.  Below are the pics from the ad.

  The owner lived in Beaver PA which is a little less than an hour from my house.  When I arrived I quickly noticed that the house was very old (but well kept).  After meeting the owner I inquired about the house because it looked historic compared to all of the other houses on the street.  As it turns out, the house was one of the original Neville homesteads in Western PA built in the 1800's.  John Neville was a military officer who served in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's War, and the Revolutionary War.  He was also a tax collector in Western Pennsylvania and became a central figure in the Whiskey Rebellion. I don't think the house belonged to John Neville but it probably belonged to one of his relatives.  

  Anyway, back to sewing machines!  The owner was actually selling two sewing machines.  He lead me into the garage where he showed me a Domestic treadle.  It was nice but I wasn't really interested.  I was polite and looked it over.....but deep inside I was thinking "where is the MOP"!  At that point, I told him I would pass on the domestic and asked if I could see the other sewing machine.  He lead me into the living room of the house and there it was.  It looked right at home in this 1800's house!  The cabinet had the coffin top lid over the machine.  At first glance, I could tell that the wood had been refinished at some point.  I also noticed that someone at some point spilled ink or something on the one corner of the lid and table top.  I lifted the lid and couldn't believe my eyes.  The machine itself was in immaculate shape!  I was in awe.  It's a good thing the owner was standing behind me or he would have seen the sheer excitement on my face.  Have you ever had one of those moments where you wanted to scream with excitement but you had to hold a straight face?  Yeah, this was one of those moments!  Before I turned around, I regained my poker face and I asked "how much do you want for this machine?".    He said "I don't know....make me an offer".  In the ad he was asking $150 for both machines.  I didn't low ball him and I made him a offer that I thought was fair(because I really wanted this machine).  But, as you can imagine my offer was less than $150.  I was expecting him to counter offer but he said "that's fair".  At this point I felt like doing a happy dance right in his living room....but I kept my poker face.  I quickly paid the man and hurried to get the machine into my car.  When I pulled away in my car.......that's when I screamed!  

  To this day I can't believe the condition of this machine.  It's almost like no one ever used it!  And honestly I think that may be the case (to a certain extent).  When I got home I started to look the machine over more closely.  I noticed that the tension discs didn't release when the presser foot was lifted.  Through further inspection I found a whole rats nest of old thread and twine behind those tiny little tension discs (not sure how so much thread fit behind them).  See pic below.  My guess is someone got all of that thread behind the tension discs at one point and then the machine would never sew correctly......so they said "this thing doesn't work, but it's pretty to look at", and then they never used it after that.  

  The cabinet has some issues.  As I mentioned, it's been refinished.  The veneer is bubbling in places and there is an ink spill to clean up.  It's also missing it's extension shelf.  The irons are in really good shape but were probably repainted when the top was refinished.  I did redo the big logo on the irons with rub n buff.  Boy I really like this stuff! You're able to apply it in a way that makes it look like its old (and not redone).  See the pics below.

    Below are detailed pictures of the machine.  At this point I haven't done anything to this machine but wipe it down with sewing machine oil.  It's so cool how all of the gold design on these machines were done by hand.  You can really tell because they are not perfect and you can clearly see that they were painted freehand.  None of the mother of pearl is missing.

  I feel really lucky to have found this machine.  It's amazing that this machine is 140 years old!!!