Posted 3 years ago
groot
(2 items)
I cant figure out the tear of my antique sewing machine. Does anyone know anything about this one? Does the serial number start with AC? What do I do to clean the wood? Just looking for some information on it. Please and thankyou.
Hi, groot. :-)
Beautiful.
Yes, the "AC" is part of the serial number. Initially, Singer used serial numbers without alpha character prefixes, but that was only up through year 1899:
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-sewing-machine-serial-number-database.html
Per the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society, serial number "AC129066" was one of a block of 35,000 consecutive serial numbers ([AC]099066 through [AC]134065) allotted by the Singer central office to one of its factories April 18, 1928, and all were destined to be stamped into the beds of model 15 machines:
AC- 099066 134065 15 35000 April 18 1928
AC- 220666 255665 15 35000 July 25 1928
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-ac-series-serial-numbers.html
FYI, the reason I excerpted a second line of information from the AC serial number table was to give you an idea of when your machine might have actually rolled off of the assembly line.
That second block of numbers was the next block of consecutive serial numbers destined for model 15 machines, and it was allotted July 25, 1928.
In 1928, WWI was mostly a bad memory, and the stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression was an unknown future fiasco. Barring worker strikes or factory equipment breakdowns, it's probably a safe bet that your model 15 machine rolled off of the assembly line sometime between April 18, and July 25 in 1928.
About the model 15:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/15
This chart gets down into the dirt of the differences between the various submodels of the 15:
http://needlebar.org/main/15chart/
Here is a manual for a model 15-30:
http://needlebar.org/main/sident/15.pdf
The decal set on your machine looks like Tiffany:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/decals/decal25
I can't quite tell which faceplate your machine has, and I can't see the rear access panel at all, but here is a gallery of them for you to browse:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/gallery_faceplates
Your cabinet looks like Drawing Room Cabinet No. 21:
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/drawing_room_cabinet_no_21-22.html
Your cabinet was probably made here:
https://orangebeanindiana.com/2019/06/12/south-bends-singer-sewing-machine-company/
The specific Singer factory where your machine was made is Elizabethport (all AC serial number machines were made there):
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_dating_by_serial_number.html
About the Elizabethport factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/elizabethport
https://www.ericwilliamsblog.com/left-behind-in-elizabeth-the-singer-manufacturing-company-part-1/
https://www.ericwilliamsblog.com/left-behind-in-elizabeth-the-singer-manufacturing-company-part-2/
Some tips on cleaning and restoring your machine:
https://ismacs.net/sewing_machine_articles/a_tricky_woodwork_restoration.html
http://www.treadleon.net/sewingmachineshop/cleaningmachines/cleaningmachines.html
In case I've forgotten something, here is my collection of vintage sewing machine links:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-vintage-sewing-machine-help
However, it's a lot to sift through, so if you have questions, just ask them here in a comment. If I don't know the answers, I'll go back out into the wilds of the Internet, and try to find them. :-)
I'm just linking your two related posts together in their comment sections:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/307001-look-what-i-found-with-the-sewing-machin