Posted 4 years ago
Stultsdavid
(1 item)
Trying to figure out the actual date this machine was built in 1934. Any help would be appreciated!
1934 Singer Sewing Machine | ||
| Sewing386 of 2539 |  |  |
1934 Singer Sewing Machine | ||
| Sewing386 of 2539 | | |
Posted 4 years ago
Stultsdavid
(1 item)
Trying to figure out the actual date this machine was built in 1934. Any help would be appreciated!
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Hi, Stultsdavid. :-)
Per the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society (ISMACS) Singer serial number tables, "AD809006" was one of a block (791846 through 826845) of 35,000 serial numbers allotted December 5th, 1934, and they were all destined to be stamped into the beds of model 15 machines:
*snip*
AD- 791846 826845 15 35000 December 5 1934
*snip*
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-ad-series-serial-numbers.html
Please understand that all of the machines associated with a block of serial numbers allotted on a given date weren't necessarily manufactured on that exact date. It would take the factory a while to work their way through the allotment.
Your machine is definitely some flavor of model 15; that tension disc assembly protruding from the face place is a hallmark of the model 15 family.
About the model 15:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/15
Here are some tools to help you narrow down the specific sub-model:
https://www.sandman-collectibles.com/id-singer-machines.htm
http://needlebar.org/main/15chart/index.html
Here are some manuals for various sub-models of the 15 family:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/manuals/ha-1-ib-wgh-instruction-manual.pdf
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/manuals/singer-sewing-machine-manual-model-15-90-compressed.pdf
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/manuals/15-91.pdf
Which factory made your machine seems a bit ambiguous. Per ISMACS, the AD serial numbers were made at Elizabethport:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_dating_by_serial_number.html
However, that decal set (RAF) says Kilbowie:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/decals/decal06
Your face plate looks like it could be this one:
https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/83ff29e07a6af01508286e3ec98a27cc4801d8ee/c8730/images/gallery/gf15k-240x360.jpg
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/gallery_faceplates
Here is information about both factories:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/elizabethport
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/kilbowie
See here at around the 14:17 mark of this circa 1934 documentary made at the Kilbowie factory the machine that stamped serial numbers into the machine beds:
https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/1592
As to value, valuation isn't something done here at Collectors Weekly Show & Tell. You can click the Appraisal link at the top of the page (but it isn't free). Alternately, you can search Ebay, etc., for similar machines to get a feel for value.
Here is some advice from one of the ISMACS experts:
http://ismacs.net/sewing_machine_articles/how_much_is_my_sewing_machine_worth.html
Good luck. :-)
Hi again, Stultsdavid.
One thing that I neglected to give you a link for yesterday was cabinets. I can't tell at all from your pictures what style of cabinet you have. Here are drawings at ISMACS:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_sewing_machine_cabinets.html
As to the question of exactly when your Singer sewing machine rolled off of the assembly line, I don't think there is a way to determine that. The closest you'll probably ever get is that allotment date for the pertinent block of serial numbers.
Per sewing machine expert Alex Askaroff, he knew of a woman who bought a Singer sewing machine brand new in 1946 that had a serial number allotted in 1939. Singer, like a lot of companies, supported the war effort by manufacturing things other than their normal product:
https://sewalot.com/dating_singer_sewing_machine_by_serial_number.htm
That's probably an extreme example of lag time, however.
That's actually more than is known about most makes of sewing machines, and considering the amount of machines Singer produced during its heyday, it's impressive.
I concatenated all of the Singer serial number tables at ISMACS (ISMACS got those serial number tables directly from Singer, who no longer maintains them, but instead endorses ISMACS through linkage) into a single file so that I could pull them all into a spreadsheet.
Although Singer did have some records for serial numbers going as far back as 1871, there are no other records about the first 16,831,099 (essentially, the pre-1900 machines).
Of the serial numbers allotted between 1900 and 1971, there are 79,966,606.