Help to identify a vintage machine please

[fredk]

26 minutes ago, PaulineSul said:

Do you know where the best place is to advertise the big machines? 

ebay or Gumtree, or Le Prevo if they'll take them

I'd advise NOT to take them to any auction house. They might be ok with furniture or porcelain but when it comes to specialist machinery they haven't a baldy and will bluff it out and, sad to say, in England there is still a lot of misogyny and they'll try to tell you that you don't know what you're talking about

[PaulineSul]

Thank you @fredk

I have emailed Le Prevo about the leather as you suggested, I will ask about the machines too. Some of them are so old that people just have no clue and try to blag it. One chap said he would give me a drink and take the stuff away, I knew that wasn't right and having spoken to the Singer machine repair chap he confirmed my suspicions.  I also think he would of just binned anything that wasn't worth much.

It's important to me that the items that can be saved are, and those that have died a death are the only ones scrapped.

 

[fredk]

4 minutes ago, PaulineSul said:

It's important to me that the items that can be saved are, and those that have died a death are the only ones scrapped.

Please don't even scrap those. They might be useful as organ donors for other machines. The manufacturers tended to use their own screw threads and getting replacements to service other machines is near impossible. If you were to trawl (not troll,) this forum you'll come across a great many requests such as 'Where can I get a plate/screw/bolt/ . . . for a Singer 29K or a xxx . . . .?'

I and my son started with one 1930 Austin 7 Ulster. We now have a large shed full of spare wheels, engines, seats, chassis. We bought spare parts whenever and wherever we could. We have helped a few fellow club members with spare parts. All these old parts are organs for our old cars to keep them on the road. Just like your old 'dead' machines

[PaulineSul]

That is very true @fredk when I think about it, I bet its impossible to get parts. 

I will bear this in mind and offer any machines that aren't working for spares or repairs.

Dad saw a use for everything, I think that's why there is so much!

[fredk]

Slightly off topic; I started my personal campaign to get people to stop throwing away old items because they were 'old' and the people didn't bother to find out what they had back about 1977. Back then a friend and I collected old photography items, One day we spotted a brass plate in an antique shop window. the plaque had come off a certain camera. We asked the store owner if he had the camera. 'No. I burnt it. The wood was no good and it was too old'

We showed him a recent auction report in a magazine we had just purchased in which a similar camera had been sold. His plaque was off a Louis Daguerre camera of 1829 and was numbered 7. The one in the auction was of 1830, numbered 15 and the camera was described as in very poor condition. It had sold for £12,000. And this man had burnt his. He had burnt money. At that time my sister had bought a very nice modern semi for under £10,000, those houses sell for £250, 000 plus today

[PaulineSul]

Dad always said one person's junk is another one's treasure and wow that chap must have been devastated! 

Shows the importance of researching items and not just throwing everything away.

I love the old items, I look at modern things and I know they won't last 10 years let alone 100!