1880(ish) Household Sewing Machine With Rare Rolling Top Cabinet

 

     About a month ago, someone on a Facebook sewing machine group had stated that a freind of theirs was looking to sell a sewing machine.  They only posted one picture of the machine.  First thing that was noticable was that it was a mother of pearl machine.  I quickly PM'd the person on Facebook expressing my interest.  Even though it was a MOP machine there was something else that caught my eye....the cabinet.  I noticed the appearance of wood slats to the left of the needle bar.  In the late 1870's/early 1880's, Household produced "rolling top" cabinet (see the picture from a Household manual below).  I've only ever seen one of these cabinets so I knew it was rare.  After a quick call to the owner of the only other one cabinet that I had seen, they confirm that indeed it was a roll top cabinet.  This of course made even more interested in adding it to my collection.  The person did respond to me letting me know that she would let me know when the family with the machine was ready to sell.  At this point I though "I'll never hear back from them".  Over a week went by with no word.  Then I recieved a message that the family was ready to sell and I was provided the email address of the the person to contact.  I quickly emailed them and gave them my phone number.  We had a nice conversation  which led to negotiating a price and setting up a pick up time/date.  The machine was located in near Albany, NY so my wife and I planned a trip up to pick up the machine.  

     Dating this machine is a little bit of a guessing game.  There is no serial number list that I'm aware of that helps you date the machine.  My serial number is 83406.  The last patent date on the back slide plate is 1879.  Based on that, we can determine that the machine is not older than 1879.  The other Household MOP machine in this cabinet (that I know of) has 1882 as the last patent date on it's slide plate.  So we can now determine that my machine was made sometime between 1879 and 1882.  Given the serial number difference between the two machines (approx. 70,000), I'm guessing that my machine was produced around 1880.....maybe 1879.

     The pictures below were provided to me from the seller.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

     It appears that the cabinet has been revarnished with some redish/brown color.  The one other cabinet that I know of was a lighter brown color and you can actually see the original lighter brown finish in spots on the top where the redish color has worn off.  You can also see the original finish inside the cabinet.   

     Quickly, I will try to explain how the roll top works.  The top drawer works as a lock for the roll top.  First, you pull the top drawer out partially.  This allows the deck that the machine sits on and the roll top slats to slide to the left.  Once the deck that machine sits on (which is hinged on the back of the deck) clears the treadle wheel/pitman arm the machine (still attached to the deck) can be tilted down into the cabinet.  With the machine/deck now down in the cabinet,  you can slide the roll top slats to the right covering the entire opening where the machine/deck once was (see last 2 pics below).  Once the roll top is in place the top drawer can be pushed back in.  Pretty cool!!!

Below are pictures that I took this morning.  I took a lot of pictures but I took them fast as I was dodging the rain (as you can see the ground is wet in the pictures).   I didn't clean anything before taking these pictures as I like to document the machine the way I get it so I can then show the before and after of my cleaning efforts.  As you can see, the machine decoration is in good shape except for a missing mother of pearl flower.  It should clean up really well.  

Enjoy!  I'll update this post as I make progress on cleaning the machine/cabinet.