Posted 2 years ago
Kimallan
(1 item)
Inherited this beauty from my Grandma Dody. This machine was her mom’s, so my Great Grandma. I haven’t been able to use the serial number to find any information about it. Any help is appreciated.
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Nice machine. The 07 at the end of the serial is odd. Looks to be a Model 66 red eye...from the serial lookup...1910? Kera will be along shortly to give you everything you need to know. We'll see if I'm close..
Nice to still have it in the family!
Hi, Kimallan. :-)
As CW user Watchsearcher observed, how great is it that you have something that belonged to your great grandmother? <3
CW user dav2no1 was right on the mark about the model and decal set. He was close to the mark on the vintage.
FYI, the reason why you couldn't find anything using the serial number is that while Singer has the best records of any vintage sewing machine maker, they don't have records for individual serial numbers, but rather groups of them.
It would be fairly mind-boggling if they'd kept records for individual machines, because I collated all of the serial number tables at the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society website, pulled the result into a spreadsheet, and totaled them. It's about 96 million between 1871 and 1971. That's just for the ones for which records weren't lost.
Unless your machine was stamped with a number that was at the beginning or end of its serial number block, or some previous owner already did research and posted it on the Internet, you wouldn't find anything that way. :-(
Anyway, serial number G3553207 was one of a block of 25,000 consecutive serial numbers ([G]3544476 through [G]3569475 ) allotted by Singer's central office to the Elizabethport factory, and all were intended to be stamped into the beds of model 66 machines.
Yours probably rolled off of the assembly line some time between the allotment date of its block (April 15 1914), and the allotment date of the next block of serial numbers intended for model 66 sewing machine heads (June 10 1914):
*snip*
G- 3544476 3569475 66 25000 April 15 1914
G- 3643601 3668600 66 25000 June 10 1914
*snip*
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-g-series-serial-numbers.html
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_dating_by_serial_number.html
It's a bit of a narrow squeak, because World War I started in July 1914, and like a lot of USA businesses, Singer supported the war effort. At some point, it brought production of machines for the private sector to a halt.
Sewing machine expert Alex Askaroff knows of an instance in which a Singer sewing machine head with a serial number allotted in 1939 wasn't sold brand new to a private customer until 1946:
https://sewalot.com/dating_singer_sewing_machine_by_serial_number.htm
About the model 66:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/66
Yours has the back-clamping presser foot, so here is a manual for the model 66-1:
https://archive.org/details/Singer661Manual
It indeed has the famous Red Eye decal set (only applied to model 66 machines, and only at USA Singer factories):
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/decals/domestics/redeye.html
I can't quite tell which cabinet you have (I can't see the drawer fronts), but it's one of these two:
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/cabinet_table_no_2-3.html
About Singer's big cabinet factory in Indiana:
https://orangebeanindiana.com/2019/06/12/south-bends-singer-sewing-machine-company/
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/
As dav2no1 observed, the serial number stamp is a little off-looking. Perhaps the machine that did the stamping was overdue for maintenance.
See the machine Singer used for serial number stamping in the 1930s in this circa 1934 documentary, starting at around the 14:17 mark:
https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/1592
In case I forgot anything, here is my collection of vintage sewing machine links:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-help-for-vintage-sewing-machines
However, it's a lot to sift through, so if you have questions, just ask them here in a comment on your post.