Posted 3 years ago
Cmiller0815
(1 item)
Hello, can anyone provide information regarding this sewing machine? According to the serial number, 3206245, it was made in 1879. Is this accurate? Any other interesting information?
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I just refinished my 1902 model Singer treadle machine. I’m actually sewing with it....makes a beautiful stitch and filling bobbins is just pure fun to watch.
I hope you learn more and enjoy it as much.
Hi, Cmiller0815. :-)
Your machine belongs to an interesting little corner of Singer history.
What you have is some minor flavor of the Singer 9W, which was a descendant of the Wheeler & Wilson D-9.
Unfortunately, Singer's serial number tables will do you no good in dating this machine, because "3206245" is probably a 'leftover' Wheeler & Wilson serial number.
Here is some research one of the members of the now defunct needlebar group did on Singer 9W serial numbers:
http://www.needlebar.org/main/survresults/singer9w/index.html
Here is some Singer 9W information from an email correspondence between one of the members of the quiltingboard forum and John Langdon of the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society (ISMACS):
https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage-antique-machine-enthusiasts-f22/wheeler-wilson9-singer-9w-serials-t186338.html
About the Singer 9W:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/9w
Which minor flavor of 9W (9W1 - 9W11) you have might be determined by examining it closely, and comparing it with the descriptions here (scroll down):
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/model-list/classes-1-99.html
Your machine's decal set is called Celtic Knot:
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/decals/domestics/9wcelticknot.html
And your cabinet is Cabinet Table No. 2:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/cabinet_table_no_2-3.html
Here is an HTML version of a manual for the 9W:
http://needlebar.org/main/manuals/singer9w/index.html
http://needlebar.org/main/manuals/singer9w/index2.html
You can probably get a free PDF copy of a 9W manual from this group, but you'd have to join:
https://groups.io/g/Wheeler_and_Wilson-Sewing-Machines/topic/d9_instruction_book/493197#
Alternately, you can get a non-free copy here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/908077274/instructions-for-using-singer-sewing
About the Bridgeport Singer factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/bridgeport
Last but not necessarily least, here is a business that restored both a W&W D-9 and a Singer 9W (scroll down):
https://www.stillstitching.com/2018/11/wheeler-wilson-marketing-powerhouse.html
If you have any further questions, you can just ask them here in a comment. If I don't know the answer, I'll go back out into the wilds of the Internet, and try to find one, but no promises. };-)
Hi again, Cmiller0815. :-)
I took another look at this, and decided that I perhaps hadn't clearly answered your questions. Too many real world tasks were distracting me at the time. >8-0
For most Singer sewing machines, the Singer serial number tables maintained by the International Sewing Machine Collectors Society (ISMACS) would do a reliable job of dating them.
However, your machine is one of the relatively rare Singers for which those just won't work.
That's because your machine is a Singer 9W, which is Wheeler & Wilson heritage machine with a legacy W&W serial number.
Nobody has truly comprehensive records for the Singer 9W machines.
Some years back, John Langdon of ISMACS was planning to compile comprehensive records for them, using survey information obtained from the vintage sewing machine enthusiasts at the quilting board forum, but for whatever reason, that project never seems to have come to fruition. Probably Langdon had too many other duties and projects demanding his time.
The most comprehensive collection of serial number/dating information for Singer 9W machines is at the defunct needlebar website. Per that, your machine was probably produced in 1913:
*snip*
Year Serial Numbers
1909 3,100000 - 3,125,000
1910 3,125,001 - 3,150,000
1911 3,150,001 - 3,175,000
1912 3,175,001 - 3,200,000
1913 3,200,001 - 3,225,000
*snip*
http://www.needlebar.org/main/survresults/singer9w/index.html#serial
Singer rolled most of the features of the 9W they thought were useful into the model 115, and stopped making the 9W, although exactly when they stopped making the latter is unknown:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/115
About the Singer 9W's ancestor, the Wheeler & Wilson D9, per John Langdon of ISMACS:
http://ismacs.net/wheelerandwilson/wheeler-wilson-d9-sewing-machine.html
Here are a few more tidbits about Wheeler & Wilson, which curiously enough, has a connection to P. T. Barnum of Barnum & Bailey fame:
http://wikimapia.org/32447173/Singer-Sewing-Machine