Nickel Plating On A Pearson #6

[amuckart]

Does anyone know whether there were nickel-plated parts on first-quarter 1900s vintage (Serial #7536) Pearson HM6?

My one is heavily patinated all over but there are bits of the hand wheel that look a lot like they were nickel plated and I'm wondering if this was likely, or whether they would have been bare metal.

If I can find out enough about what the machine looked like in its original livery, I'd like to restore it to that, but I'm finding it very difficult of locate any information on what the original. Failing that I want to make it look good, but plausibly 19-teens.

Auckland, where I live, is incredibly humid, and exposed metal will rust badly without near constant attention so I'm thinking of getting things like the hand wheel, shuttle race, and foot pressure spring electroless nickel plated when I restore the machine.

Thoughts? Ideas? Pictures of machines in original condition?

Thanks.

[steadybrook]

I have had quite a few Pearsons here in the saddlery over the years,sold most of them and still have one I use. All of them were painted,I donot recall any of them being chromed.Some were painted very fancy with gold colored pin striping etc.

Edited October 20, 2011 by steadybrook

[amuckart]

Chrome's a very different look to nickel. My machine is painted too, not that any of the pinstriping survives except on the hand wheel. There are bare metal parts - notably the rim of the hand wheel and the shuttle race, and it's those parts I'm thinking of. I wouldn't plate a whole machine