Posted 4 years ago
Vregenauer
(1 item)
Not sure much about it found in my father's estate. Table drawers not in real good shape. No labels or numbers on machine that I found.
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Hi, Vregenauer. :-)
What you likely have is an Improved Eldredge B made by the National Sewing Machine Company and badged for Montgomery Ward:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/150216-windsor-treadle-sewing-machine
About badged machines:
http://ismacs.net/faq.html#badged
It is a bit unusual for there to be no serial number. I can see from your pictures that there isn't one underneath the front slide plate (a very typical location for a National serial number), and neither do I see one underneath the bed:
http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php?title=National_Vibrating_Shuttle_Machines
Anyway, about the National Sewing Machine Company:
http://ismacs.net/national/from_eldredge_to_national_to_janome.html
A manual for the National Improved Eldredge B (courtesy of the vintage sewing machine enthusiasts at the quilting board forum):
https://d28lcup14p4e72.cloudfront.net/197085/3017798/ImprovedEldredgeB.pdf
https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage-antique-machine-enthusiasts-f22/national-improved-eldredge-type-b-manual-t298335.html
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out much of anything about National's cabinets. That is to say, there are plenty of pictures of National sewing machine cabinets out there on the Internet, but there isn't any information about the who and where of their manufacture.
This could be a total red herring, but there's a labeled postcard of the National Sewing Machine Company's factory in Belvidere, IL of unknown vintage, but the oldest it could be is 1954 (because one of the labels has that date in it):
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M2fBWyJ-_CA/WmmiW8vwDqI/AAAAAAAA9Ws/_msg0rABiVYZMBM9AnM52CBcHsVX-w0PQCLcBGAs/s1600/26814432_1540362402745296_6365893660367662455_n.jpg
http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2017/05/belvidere-il-national-sewing-machine.html
You'll see that one of the buildings is labeled as "LEATH FURNITURE SINCE EARLY 70'S." Perhaps that repurposed building originally housed National's cabinet-making facility. *shrug*
Your cabinet isn't really in that bad shape, but these things are relative. Does the center drawer swing out on a right-hand side pivot point?