As you may know from yesterdays blog, I have spent the weekend at the lovely Mr S's. In the afternoon we decided to go to one of our favourite haunts, the junk yard.Not for anything in particular just 'a look around'. Whilst there I spotted a suit case under a coffee table, it reminded me my eldest Miss K had recently asked and has been looking for an old suitcase. This was in lovely condition so I tried to pull it out but it was far to heavy, so i figured it must have more suitcases inside ?? (I don't know why I thought this). So Mr S got it out for me, we opened it up to discover a beautiful old singer (I know they are worthless objects, but they do get me excited so.
There was no price on this beaut, so the lady was phoning the owner and we happened to spot another suitcase close by, revealing another,
Well so far so excellent, but no suitcase for my daughter. So mulling over, 'do I really need/want more machines' we carried on looking when I spied another case pilied ontop of some chairs, this case reminded me of the one my sister used to have which held a haidryer and brush set, kind of like a large vanity case. I surely couldn't believe it, yet another sewing machine,
This is a Riccar, not a make I have ever heard of. But this is such a bizare find. The machine was in upside down and in lifting it up there was a piece of paper Mr S opened the paper to discover it was a hand written reciept (in the picture lower right.) It turns out he actually knew the owner, She was a friend of his gran's and lived only two streets over. Well that was it I knew I had to have it, so all three machines came home with us.
Unfortunally for my daughter this meant no vintage suitcase, but I am sure there will be plenty more visits to the junk yard as that is now where I have purchased four of my vintage machines the previous being the 1923 Singer. I have managed to date the other two Singgers due to the fantasic Singer website
http://www.singerco.com/support/machine-serial-numbersand have found some information on Riccar machines here
I would recomend this site to anyone wish to find out more infomation on vintage sewing machines.
Details of the infomation on my machines can be found on my page 'In Retirement.'
Hope you all have a good week ahead, and happing sewing, Vala
Just read your post on vintage sewing machines. My boss picked up a Bernina patchwork sewing machine for me at Goodwill for only $30 -- it was in excellent shape. I have a Riccar sewing machine, and it's one of the best sewing machines. Our local sewing store owner comes to our sewing classes to give us sewing tips and techniques. I asked him about my machine and what he knew about it (I had bought it from him 20 years ago). He said the Koreans (I am sure it was Koreans) bought Bernina sewing machines and renamed them with their own label -- Riccar. I thought my Riccar looked very similar to the vintage one I used in class. So, there was the reason! Enjoy your new finds!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, it's always cool to know a bit of history about the things we collect.
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