Deborah Cooke: Author

A few weeks ago, Mr. C. was asking about my sewing machine collection. Yes, I’ve admitted that it’s a collection. There’s a saying that once you have three, you have a collection, and I have (ulp) seven. They are all extremely cool but two of the treadles are in parlor cabinets. That means they’re furniture as well as sewing machines, so they take up a bunch of space. The old girls all work, but they have me outnumbered – I don’t put them all through their paces on a regular basis.

So, it’s not unreasonable that Mr. C. tactfully asked just how many sewing machines I was planning to collect. And I confessed that there was just one more I wanted – a hand crank sewing machine.

You can probably guess that I found one almost immediately, the universe being the temptress that she is. It’s in almost perfect condition, runs so smoothly and has beautiful decals. The original manual was with it as well, so the sale was made.

Here it is:

I used those look-up sites I gave you before, and discovered that it was manufactured in 1906 in Scotland, and that the decal set is called “Victorian”. Mr. C. likes the case a lot – this style is called a coffin-top.

My only regret is that it isn’t a fiddleback – these are the ones with the curly bases, that were made in the 19th century – and doesn’t have a porcelain handle. A lot of those were made in England and Germany.

You can guess what that means — there’s just one more that I need to find!

Go ahead and tell me what tempts to you collect “just one more”.