Help For Vintage Badged Sewing Machines

20230107:
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SEWING MACHINE BADGING
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A practice called "badging" was common in the sewing machine industry as far back as the 19th century. It causes a lot of confusion and frustration for 21st century owners of these vintage badged sewing machines, because they have trouble identifying the actual make, model, and age of their machine.

What is a "badged" sewing machine?

Simply put, a badged sewing machine is one that has a name prominently displayed on it that isn't necessarily the name of any actual manufacturer of sewing machines, but rather something chosen by a retail end seller who contracted with a manufacturer. A badge name doesn't necessarily reflect the name of the end seller, either. Sometimes the end seller would simply coin a name that they thought would appeal to consumers.

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MANHATTAN BADGED NATIONAL MODEL VB-TT TYPE 5 SERIAL NUMBER 628643 VINTAGE CIRCA 1905
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The first machine in this post has the badge name "Manhattan" stenciled on the horizontal arm. "Manhattan" was a badge name used not only by more than one major vintage sewing machine maker, but also for more than one model of vintage sewing machine.

Per the researchers at needlebar dot org, it was used by the Davis Sewing Machine Company, the National Sewing Machine Company, and the Standard Sewing Machine Company.

The Manhattan-badged machine in this post is actually a National Sewing Machine Company model VB-TT Type 5.

How can one tell? This "Manhattan" sewing machine shares the following characteristics with the National VB-TT Type 5 seen at needlebar dot org:

A rounded body shape

An inspection plate at the shoulder (the junction of the horizontal arm and the upright pillar)

A leaf style upper tension assembly located on top of the horizontal arm

A (thumb) screw style stitch length control mechanism located on the pillar

A low-mounted bobbin winder

As an identification bonus, the inspection plate at the shoulder has the logo for the Charles Williams Stores. This is very fortunate, because while this machine also has a serial number engraved on the body underneath the forward slide plate (628643), there is no central database of National Sewing Machine Company vintage sewing machines.

The Charles Williams Stores logo on the inspection plate allows us to date this machine tentatively to circa 1905, using online copies of old catalogs.

Other vintage National sewing machines sometimes can be dated by comparing their serial numbers with one that has been dated by other means. This excerpt is from an archive dot org copy of retired engineer and techno-renaissance man Wayne Schmidt's website:

*snip*

Dating antique sewing machines is often a combination of hunting and guesswork. In this case, the name may provide a clue. The Willamette D sewing machines were made by National for the Portland, Oregon-based chain of Meier & Frank department stores. While she has a serial number (2,296,351) there are no known lists of National sewing machine serial numbers and production dates, so that by itself doesn't help much. But, when compared to our other National machine, which has a 2,167,857 serial number and was dated to 1913 by other means, it suggests this Willamette D is slightly later, say around 1914. Additionally, assuming the name refers to the town of Willamette, which only existed from 1908 to 1917, this date seems to be reasonable.

Bessy (named after the lady who first owned her and handed her down through two generations before her granddaughter entrusted her to our care) is a VB-TT (vibrating shuttle - top tension) type 5 machine who still works after 105 years. After a little polishing and decal restoration she'll be a real gem.

*snip*

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UNIVERSAL BADGED KOYO MACHINE INDUSTRIES MODEL KZM SERIAL NUMBER 402187 VINTAGE CIRCA 1970S
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The second vintage sewing machine in this post is badged as a "Universal," and has a REG. U.S. PAT. NO. of 523537.

That number is a registration number for the trademarked name "Universal."

Unfortunately, the United States Patent and Trademark Office keeps fiddling with the way their online databases work, and I myself grew so frustrated, that once I finally found the pertinent trademark listing again (!), I converted the PDF file into a couple of JPG files, and added them to this post (images three and four).

In looking at the trademark listing, one can see that the "Universal" name was trademarked by an entity called the "Standard Sewing Equipment Corporation" in 1950, and renewed in 1990 for ten years. The name had been in use since 1948.

The Standard Sewing Equipment Corporation was essentially a business entity created to facilitate the importation into the USA of sewing machines made elsewhere in the world, initially from England and Italy, but starting in 1949 from Japan.

This particular machine has a label elsewhere on its body identifying it as having been made by the Koyo Machine Industries company in Osaka, Japan.

Thus, this machine could be regarded as being what is known as a Japanese clone. The term "Japanese clone" is neither accurate, nor flattering.

The term clone suggests something that is a twin of something else, and possibly degraded or inferior. So-called Japanese clone sewing machines were almost never twins of something else. The Japanese 'clone' makers took a machine such as the Singer model 15, and used it as a kind of basic pattern, and frequently improved on the original.

Per the late great CW user Bernadette, this Universal KZM sewing machine is probably a 1970s vintage multi-stitch automatic zigzag sewing machine.

Per the OP of sewingiscool, the sewing machine sold as a Universal KZM might have been the same as a Montgomery Ward Signature brand sewing machine.

Who is/was Koyo Machine Industries? I found a sewing machine patent (US4217841) filed by Koyo Seiko Co Ltd, Koyo Machine Industries Co Ltd in 1978. For me, that clinches the relationship between Koyo Seiko and Koyo Machine Industries. It also speaks to a survival of sewing machine interest by Koyo into the cusp of the 1970s and 1980s.

If Koyo indeed made this machine, it probably has a J-13 code stamped somewhere on the chassis, per vintage sewing machine expert Zorba.

Ultimately, the Universal KZM might be a fine sewing machine, but anybody who owns one might have trouble finding manuals and parts.

For a manual, perhaps the best bet is the large Facebook vintage sewing machine group which has a library of over one thousand vintage sewing machine manuals.

For parts, there is a UK-based business that has some.

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KENMORE
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Most major vintage sewing machine makers made badged machines, with the exception of Singer.

Probably the most famous badge name is "Kenmore." They were actually made by a variety of well-known vintage sewing machine makers over time, including the National Sewing Machine Company and the White Sewing Machine Company. Sears' archives has some information about their vintage Kenmore sewing machines.