The mystery is solved!
Five sewing machines were taken out of store in 2020 and displayed in Pye Cottage Museum, Gunning. The blog “A Touch of Old World Charm,” featured two “hand-operated” sewing machines. The small, iron machine seemed to be a “mystery.” The second blog covered two of our treadle machines, an Australian Beale and a Singer model, the Sphinx. (1, 2) In this blog I can correct an earlier error and show off the fifth sewing machine in our collection, a Nirvana “drophead treadle machine.”
It seemed that the mystery was, which “hand-operated” machine had been “Donated by Mrs Offley of Jerrawa?” That label, hand printed by someone from Gunning & District Historical Society, was in one drawer of a very well-kept drophead, treadle machine, the Nirvana. In other drawers, there were two sets of attachments and a detailed manual. The illustrations in the manual clearly match our Nirvana.
This handwritten note was in another drawer of the treadle machine:
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| Donation note by Reta Halloran, cropped from the original RA Spiller |
This Sewing Machine was made in 1910, (and) was purchased by Mrs George Albert Lees (nee Bateup) the same year. Mrs Lees owned it until she died. It was donated by her daughter Reta Halloran to the Historical Society in 1988.
With the help of two former Gunning Lees, Kim and Allen, I contacted Reta’s daughter, Mrs Jan Cirillo. She has identified her grandmother’s sewing machine, especially recalling its distinctive curved cover.
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| Imperial handcrank purchased in 1910. Photo LA Bush |
So, this machine is 110 years old, used by its owner until about 50 years ago. Jan thinks her grandmother used the machine to sew for the family, which included Reta Mildred and three other children, Lloyd George, Athol Edward and Gavin Maxwell. She suggests the machine was used for everyday work, such as “turning” collars (to maximise the life a shirt when fraying began to show) and sewing underwear.
The labels were correct but the interpretation was wrong.
Now, GDHS can confidently attach the label “Hand Operated Sewing Machine, Donated Mrs Offley Jerrawa” to the small, iron sewing machine with the “feet” at the right rear of the photo above. It featured in the GDHS blog, “A Touch of Old World Charm.”
Jan has generously provided images of her grandparents. She believes this picture of Amelia Bateup was taken around 1910 when she was about 20 years of age. We can only speculate that she sewed this outfit on her new machine.
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| Amelia Bateup, probably in 1910, Photo supplied by J Cirillo |
George Albert Lees (1885-1958) was descended from two well-known Gundaroo and Gunning families. He was the grandson of German immigrants from Grossbottwar, Johannes and Louisa Lees. This family history by Kim Lees can also be viewed on our blogspot. (3)
Amelia and George were married in 1913. George died 19 May, 1958, aged 72 years and Amelia died 2nd June, 1972 at 81 years. Headstone inscriptions show that both are buried in Gunning General Cemetery, as are Lloyd and Reta. (4)
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| Lees-Bateup wedding in 1913, Photo supplied by J Cirillo |
Why buy a handcrank in the twentieth century?
Even though Singer treadles like our Sphinx were manufactured before 1900, handcrank machines were not outdated for many years. No sewing machines appear in the advertisements placed in the Goulburn Evening Penny Post by two Gunning traders, the London House and Victoria House stores, although both emphasised their roles as importers. The Penny Post ran numerous ads for Singer machines in 1910 but not for an Imperial. Drury’s, “Opposite the Post Office, Goulburn,” advertised “HAND MACHINES” for £3/6/-. The New Home machines started at £7/18/-, presumably they were treadles, to account for the price difference.
The Farmer and Settler newspaper contained a column entitled, “The Rural Home conducted by Aunt Merrythought.” She answered readers’ enquiries of where to buy particular goods. Indeed, she bought the goods and organised delivery to country readers. She “shops for her friends” at a number of Sydney stores, including David Jones and Horderns.
What a service for the country shopper!
Aunt Merrythought could also suggest a suitable dressmaker for the material the rural woman had sought. Of course, there was cross-advertising by the Sydney shops on the same page, so Aunt Merrythought (the newspaper) really increased its advertising revenue by running “advertorial.” During 1907 and later, she promoted the Domestic sewing machine (5):
Another mystery solved
Together with the donation note, at least one tin of attachments can be united with Amelia’s handcrank Imperial. The “Fine Cut” tobacco tin, lower right, contains a very similar bobbin to the previously published photo of bobbins ready to use.
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| Distinctive bobbins, ready to sew. Photo RA Spiller |
Possibly the “Roses” tin of attachments also belongs to Amelia’s sewing machine:
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| Third bobbin kept with spare attachments. Photo RA Spiller |
Both tins have been removed from the Nirvana treadle machine drawer. We have no idea which machine should be connected to the CHAIN COTTON label, the rubber ring, the broken screw driver and the short piece of fishing line. But haven’t we seen those things in a bottom drawer before?
Would you buy a machine from this man?
Mr Rowley of the Sydney Sewing Machine Company condescendingly told the “ladies” that, “an hour’s sewing with a good machine soothes a woman’s nerves and exerts the same calming influence that tobacco does with a man.” (6)
Now we know that the feedback loop for tobacco use works to bring heightened pleasure, followed by increased anxiety after a time, thus requiring further use to reduce that anxiety. Surely, the need to attack the mending or run up a new garment cannot be said to be addictive in the same way as tobacco?
Amelia looks to be a calm person. Perhaps she enjoyed her sewing. On the reverse of Reta Halloran’s handwritten label, there are perforations made when her mother checked the tension or tried to work out why a thread was breaking or the fabric puckering. She might not have been thinking how soothing it was to sew a straight line or how keen she was to “imprison her fancied wrongs into the double gussets!”
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| Reverse of donation note: Amelia’s stitch trial. |
New mysteries!
Why name a sewing machine Nirvana?
This is not a product tie-in to a grunge music album! Nirvana is both a state of mind and a place. It is the “state of perfect happiness and peace in Buddhism where there is release from all forms of suffering, a state or place of great happiness and peace, like heaven.” Here “there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.” (7)
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| Proudly displayed name. Photo RA Spiller |
The machine swings smoothly into the cabinet housing, leaving a flat piece of furniture with the lovely metal legs. The drawers are original and the surfaces are in very good condition, considering the years of storage. No donor is recorded.
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| Nirvana on display in the “kitchen” of Pye Cottage, Gunning. Photo LA Bush |
Who owned the Nirvana? Who donated it?
We have no clues how the sewing machine has come to rest in Pye Cottage Museum, Gunning. A search of NSW newspapers on Trove yields a “Nirvana drophead sewing machine” for sale, either second hand or at auctions of household goods, advertised on dates ranging from 1917 to 1954. Locations ranged from Dumbleyung (WA) to Melbourne (where Beauchamp Bros offered them in their “Special Lots”), from Renmark to Coraki and Taree. No advertisements for new machines have been found.
Who made the NIRVANA drophead sewing machine?
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| “PATENTED 30 Nov 1886” Photo RA Spiller |
No date of manufacture has been found on the machine. Only the bottom half of page one of the 32-page instruction booklet remains. Perhaps the lost top of the page said “Nirvana.” The letters “EB” suggest an Eldredge B model, a product of the National Sewing Machine Company.
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| Is that floral design very like that on the machine? |
This could mean that the year of manufacture is not later than 1890. (8) However in that year, Barnabas Eldredge consolidated his first business with that of the sewing machine company, June Manufacturing, to form the National Sewing Machine Company. Gradually his Eldredge sewing machine sales overtook the sales of the Jenny June model.
Among other innovations, National badged orders for the large US department stores and other bulk buyers. National also made Eldredge bicycles in the 1890s, and later, an Eldredge automobile, as well as washing machines, food grinders, vices and badge machines.(9) An internet search for “sewing machine patented 30 Nov 1886” shows machines offered for sale on Ebay, both of which are remarkably similar to each other and to our Nirvana: “Antique Kenwood Treadle Sewing Machine & Parlor Cabinet. Solid Oak” and “Antique Sew Well Steinway 6 Drawer Sewing Machine with Table/Wood Stand”.
It seems that the tin of “Best Set of Steel Attachments” – in the middle of the photo - belongs in a drawer of this machine. However, both the tin on the left side (with roses on the outside) and the “Fine Cut” tobacco tin belong to Amelia Lees’s Imperial.
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| A collection of tins of attachments. Photo RA Spiller |
Who were the dressmakers of Gunning?
Amelia was a home dressmaker, like many women in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Women worked as dressmakers and milliners, but it seems they were known in their communities, without needing to advertise. It would be great to hear from people who know the names of Gunning district women who worked in these trades. Dressmaking and related courses were offered by the Technical Colleges in NSW from at least 1903 and the successful graduates named in the local newspapers. We learn their stories as part of other connections.
The earliest dressmaker in Gunning for whom we have a record, is Elizabeth Jones (1850-1876). Her son was Augustus Jones, Gunning grazier and photographer. He is featured at the top of this blogspot. Ray McJannet revealed this image, and many others, from a collection of Gus Jones’s glass negatives, passed down in the family.
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| Dressmaker's son, grazier and photographer: Self Portrait, Photo R McJannet |
In the 1930s, Dulcie Bobbin worked as a dressmaker from her parents’ home in Yass Street. We know her story through the oral history of one of her customers, Ettie Rodrom. That’s a story for another blog.
Before Rita Hickinbotham married Albert Lees, Gunning butcher and landowner, she trained as a seamstress in Sydney prior to World War 2. We don’t know if Rita Lees would have visited Amelia Lees or seen her sewing machine. Her talents were demonstrated by exquisite workmanship on her family’s clothing. This photo was previously published on the blog in Lees “Family Origins – links to Gunning.”
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| Children of George & Rita Lees. Photo courtesy K Lees |
The "Touch of Old World Charm"
display will close very soon and many items will return to store.
Thanks and Sources
Thanks to Kim Lees for helping me to recognise Reta Halloran’s name on the donation note and for some Lees family history not directly linked to his part of the family.
Thanks to Kristen Proudfoot for re-connecting me to Allen Lees, a grandchild of Amelia and George. Allen kindly provided an introduction to Jan Cirillo.
My very grateful thanks go to Jan Cirillo for the photographs of Amelia and George Albert Lees and for reminiscences of her grandmother.
All newspaper items were found on Trove, nla (National
Library of Australia): search https://trove.nla.gov.au/
- https://gunninghistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-touch-of-old-world-charm-by-rosemary.html
- https://gunninghistory.blogspot.com/2020/12/two-treadle-sewing-machines-with-touch.html
- https://gunninghistory.blogspot.com/2018/01/lees-family-origins-links-to-gunning.html
- Gundaroo Historical Society manages Graeme Challinor’s Genealogy Pages http://www.gundaroo.info/genealogy/cemeteries/all_sort.pdf
- Farmer and Settler,
6 December 1907, at page 11, from Trove, nla
- Australian Star, p6 17 Dec 1894, Trove, nla
- ( www.merriam-webster.com and www.vocabulary.com>dictionary>nirvana; attributed to Oxford Languarges, google search 18.02.21
- Grace Rogers Cooper, 2010, The Project Gutenberg Ebook of the Invention of the Sewing Machine 32677 (downloadable), p65
- Graham Forsdyke, International Sewing Machine Collectors’ Society, April 1997, http://ismacs.net/national/from_eldredge_to_national_to_janome.html
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