"A Touch of Old World Charm"

"A Touch of Old World Charm"

by Rosemary Spiller

Take a step back through time with a display of items from bygone days, that connects us to our history. From fashion, fripperies and fancies to paintings, portraits and photographs of who they were and how they lived. Come visit us at Pye Cottage Museum, where stories unfold and history comes alive.

Pye Cottage Museum and the new exhibition

The cottage was built close to the road from Gunning, just before Dalton village, by 1867, for the Savage family. Named for the family which donated it, the cottage was moved to 121 Yass Street Gunning, where it opened in September 1974 as Pye Cottage “Folk” Museum. Local people made donations of items to illustrate local personalities and features of agricultural life c 1860-1945. Some donations were made anonymously, sometimes under cover of darkness! 

Much of the clothing in the exhibition, including the wedding dress, was donated by Nancy Foord, daughter of the featured wedding couple, Ethel Daisy Wheatley and William Charles Bladwell, who married in 1905. The Wheatley name is synonymous with the economic development of Gunning at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Five sewing machines for the home dressmaker on display 

The display shows how our ancestors dressed. It includes five sewing machines, essential to producing family clothing for work and leisure in those years. 

A man's machine?
Photo RA Spiller

We found two labels in separate drawers of the very well-kept table of a “modern” drophead treadle machine. That machine’s owner and the later donor were clearly stated on one label, and the original handbook and attachments were included. But the second label is a mystery.

“Hand Operated Sewing Machine, Donated Mrs Offley Jerrawa” says the second label.  However, GDHS has two handcrank machines.  Was it the machine with its own case, or the small, iron machine? And, was this one really used to sew a fine seam on a dance dress? 

This “mystery” sewing machine was a “show and tell item” at the recent AGM of GDHS.

This machine certainly looks different from a Singer between the 1870s and 1940s, or from a modern domestic sewing machine.  At first glance there is very little charm about it today. For a small, portable machine, it is relatively heavy, apparently of cast iron. However, the remnant of dainty floral design and silver on black, twining scrollwork, suggests it was originally a handsome object. 

A sewing machine with "feet"?

Many of us know where the "foot" is located on a sewing machine.  Below, you can see the black lever which drops the needle, through the material, and engages the bobbin or shuttle mechanism below. This machine has another four feet. Beneath each corner of the base is a hole so that a screw could be inserted upwards through a bench. Some people think it could not have been a woman’s machine! Was it used by a shoemaker or a saddler? There were several of these businesses in Gunning and Dalton before 1900. Silver scrollwork traces every edge and is visible in the shield-like design on the right-hand side (below). 

Four feet with toes and toenails!
Photo RA Spiller

On the web, one can see a myriad of images that it is not like.  One machine that it resembles is the “Antique Hand Crank Sewing Machine Little Beauty” – try the term in your search engine. What about the “fiddle base” and the “feet”?  It is not the 1870s chainstitch Paw foot Wilson*. Look closely at the left foot to see the toes with delicate toenails, more human than animal. 

The action of the needle suggests the “hitch” required for chain stitch. There are no obvious maker marks. Rust currently prevents opening the foot plate where the maker mark is sometimes found. When the button (lower centre front) is released, the head tips back. A shuttle-type mechanism can be glimpsed.  

Two hand operated sewing machines feature in “A Touch of Old World Charm” in what was originally the boys' bedroom, Pye Cottage.

Imperial handcrank, with "mystery" sewing machine in background
plus some "fashion and fripperies" from c. 1900
photo LA Bush

The Imperial portable handcrank retains its glamour with not much wear on the “gold” decals, except, infuriatingly, just where bunched up fabric would have rubbed.  We can only read “MADE I…..” or MADER…….”  Note the customised “pin holder” attached by the sewer at just the right place for her. The operator turned the lever on the right-hand side. Here it is shown turned inwards (to the left) to allow the case to slide over the machine on its own timber table.

The Imperial case
photo RA Spiller

Aha, when the case is cleaned, these words appear very faintly in gold cursive writing, The Imperial. Thus, it may be a Harris and Judson machine, as these two men traded as the Imperial Sewing Machine Co, from November 1873 in the (former) Franklin Works, Birmingham.  Further research is required to date the machine. Could this one really be nearly 150 years old? ** Possibly the use of veneer in the timber work suggests a later date. 

If only it was a Singer the number would help with identification.  However, P434545 is under the bobbin access plate, not on the right-hand side of the base plate (as with a Singer). Note the bobbins supplied by the donor.

Which colour thread will she use?
Photo RA Spiller

Photo RA Spiller

The cover locks into place but it is not a "carry case." One must lift the whole machine by its base "table."

On the short end of the cover is a floral design which seems to be pokerwork. It looks to be out of keeping with the long side design.  Perhaps another hobby was tried on an available surface by a later generation?  It is shown on the table in the  "kitchen" - the girls' bedroom when the Pye family lived in the slab Cottage.

Photo RA Spiller

But who wouldn’t be inspired to run up a dress for a dance with a horned, winged, fearsomely clawed lion to urge her on to keep turning the handle?

And what about Mrs Offley of Jerrawa? and the three treadle machines? Possiblilities for her identity and the details of the three treadlies in the display will be given in the next article.

 "A Touch of Old World Charm" display is now open.

The display was developed by Gunning & District Historical Society for the Gunning Arts Festival, April 2020. It will open to members on 28th November, having previously been available during COVID-19 restrictions to very small groups of visitors and “on-line” at https://www.gunningartsfestival.com/festival/ 

GDHS hopes to welcome visitors on the last Sunday of each month, when conditions allow the Gunning Lions Markets to resume. Pye Cottage is charming but small. To discuss how GDHS can "socially-distance" a tour for one or two to ten people, or for a tour bus group, contact us at gunninghistory@gmail.com 

Sources and Thanks

*the “Mystery” machine: you might enjoy some images related to this type of machine, by searching the web with terms such as "fiddle base sewing machine" or "fiddle back sewing machine" or "Paw Foot Wilson sewing machine."  

**the Imperial machine, See David G Best, http://www.sewmuse.co.uk/imperial%20sewing%20machine.htm 

Some hints from sewing machine bloggers include the opinion that a very similar machine could be: “a Japanese clone of a Singer… the numbers mean very little” and “the same decals as my Universal” as well as the comment: “Imperial allowed others to badge the machine.”  

GDHS thanks Mrs Nancy Foord for the donation of the displayed clothing and accessories and the donors of our wonderful collection of sewing machines. 

We thank the Upper Lachlan Shire Council for its contribution to the ongoing operation of GDHS and support of local history.