MASINA CUSUT ELECTRICA SINGER 22-1 ANTICA

This Singer Portable Electric Sewing Machine Model 221-1, commonly known as the Featherweight, is being produced in Elizabethport, NJ in 1953-54.

The Standard Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, OH began manufacturing sewing machines in 1884. Standard was one of the many manufacturers that sprang up shortly after the dissolution of the Sewing Machine Combination of Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, and Grover & Baker. One of Standard’s most popular machines among collectors today is the Sewhandy portable sewing machine, which was manufactured from the late 1920s through early 1930s. The Standard Company was acquired by the Osaan company around 1929, and they in turn sold out to the Singer Manufacturing Co. in the 1930s. Although the Featherweight clearly owes much to the earlier Standard Sewhandy portable, it is probably not true to say that Singer bought Standard just to get its hands on the Sewhandy design! It would be difficult to deny, however, that the Sewhandy was the inspiration for the Featherweight.

The Featherweight has the same unitary design with the “works” hidden in a deepened base, and was built to sell first and foremost as a portable. But the improvements that Singer built into the new Featherweight made it succeed where the Sewhandy had failed to rescue Standard. The new machine had aluminum base and arm components, drastically reducing the weight (the Sewhandy had a cast-iron arm), a flip-up extension table that increased the work area, and an easily-selected reverse feature. Maintenance was made easier with a single thumb screw releasing the bottom pan for lubrication (the Sewhandy had a series of screws holding a hefty wooden base).

The new design was introduced to the public in 1933 at the Chicago World’s Fair. The improved model, which followed three years later, had a re-worked bobbin case and a numbered dial which took the guesswork out of tension setting. Production of the Model 221 started in Kilbowie, Scotland in 1949. At that time, it was Singer's largest factory. The Elizabethport, NJ factory produced Singer machines from 1930-1960, including the Featherweight 221-1 model during the 1950s. And by the way, even though this sewing machine has always been known as “the Featherweight,” none of them has ever actually carried that name on the machine itself!

Price: $650.00 + s/h and insurance   ** SOLD      (ARTICOL COPIAT DE PE INTERNET)