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Even seen this?

 

In the process of attempting to polish the cloth plate on the newly-arrived #3, I thought I saw odd scratches near the bolt hole.? Upon closer inspection, it is clearly a set of initials.? Has anybody seen this on a cloth plate?? Initials of the owner?? Initials of inspector/workman?? Stamped?? Engraved?? The last initial is a "W," which may or may not be relevant to the machine being a Wheeler & Wilson.

Any input appreciated!
Thanks,
Ziggy
 

Haven¡¯t seen engraved initials on the cloth plate of a W&W before. I just checked our ca 1856 head and confirmed no initials present. Curious place to put someone¡¯s initials. You¡¯d think if the machine were a gift, or a personalized machine, the initials would look better smack dab in the middle of the cloth plate.

We do have a 3/4-sized W&W machine which has the name ¡°W. B. Snyder¡± stamped into the body of the machine one one of the supports, under the cloth plate. Haven¡¯t yet discovered who W.B. Snyder was.

Regards,
John
 



Hey John,?

Do you have any clues about W. B. Snyder at all? General location(s) where the machine has lived? Date of the machine??

I've had some luck discovering info on previous owners of my vintage & antique items (long dead people - I'm not trying to find or dox the living ?). I was a historical researcher for years. Now it's just a hobby.?

Agatha?


We do have a 3/4-sized W&W machine which has the name ¡°W. B. Snyder¡± stamped into the body of the machine one one of the supports, under the cloth plate.? Haven¡¯t yet discovered who W.B. Snyder was.?

Regards,
John
 

Interesting--kind of leads me to believe that these are an owner's initials.? A modest owner, apparently!

As is our wont, we're tempted to leave a note for the seller (machine acquired from an antique mall) to see if we can glean any general information about the history/origin of the machine.? Perhaps we, as with Agatha, are interested in historical aspects...or we're just plain nosy.

Ziggy
 

Agatha - unfortunately, only have the name of the previous owner (not of the Snyder family name), and the serial number gives an estimated date of manufacture of 1872. Don¡¯t have information on where the machine was originally found. For those of you who may have Carter Bays¡¯ ¡°Encyclopedia of Antique and Early American Sewing Machines¡± 3rd edition (green cover) the machine is shown in Figure 2-321, left side.

Instinct tells me the name was stamped there during the manufacture of the machine by W&W, not by an individual. I don¡¯t know whether Mr. Snyder was the purchaser, an intended recipient of a gift from W&W, or possibly he had something to do with the design and manufacture of the machine.

Now I¡¯m off to try my limited skills searching for clues on the internet!

Regards,
John

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