deplaylady

Really neat post - I learned a lot! Thanks Cathy!

HelenAnn

Cathy that was great, I'm going to try to save it for reference.
I have a Pritzlaff Rotary[ATTACH=CONFIG]473103[/ATTACH]That I think is an early Davis.

oldsewnsew

Yeah, but I believe, Davis got em from Eldredge... I have matches for that one, Stag, Damascus, and something else I forget right now. Wish I had the cabinet! (but I don't want to seem presumptious, like I actually KNOW what I'm talking about)

Macybaby

Now that is interesting - I was wondering about the Davis rotary . . .

Another interesting note the Pritzlaff name on the chart (for VS) is listed as taking the same needle and shuttle as the early Eldredge machines.

I'd bet money this machine was made by Eldredge/National. Now I'll have to look more into the Davis Rotarys and see if they were only reselling someone else's machines. We need our resident Davis expert to chime in!

Macybaby

Just checked Needlbar and it has the Pritzlaff Rotary listed under National with no reference to Davis at all. The good part - it's a lot easier to find attachments to fit National Rotary machines.

http://needlebar.org/cm/displayimage..._display_media

National made this model (Rotary A) and put a lot of different names on it. The above link has a short bit about the Pritzlaff company that sold machines with that name on them.

jlhmnj

Rotary made by Davis is an uncommon bird. I have one missing it's bobbin case, bobbins and slide plate and have been looking for these parts or complete machine for years. Much more common is "Davis Rotary" made by National after the Davis bankruptcy of 1924. Pic of the distinctive Davis Rotary:

Macybaby

thanks for the picture - now I know what to look for.

National used a lot of other Mfg names after the original company went out of business - and that can make it hard when looking for a specific machine. I'm looking for a Leader or New Leader, and run into so many Nationals with those names on it, and it's very hard to convince the sellers they don't actually have a rare Leader Mfg machine made around 1890-1900 - but instead have a much more common National machine made around 1920 -1940. Seems the fact that what they are selling came with an electric motor does not mean much to them LOL!!

HelenAnn

Thanks again Cathy, I wasn't sure about the pritz as I just got it about a week ago. I had briefly looked at something that made me think Davis.

HelenAnn

Cathy do you have a photo of Leader you are looking for?

Macybaby

I'm not sure what the Leader I'm looking for looks like . . .

I was looking in the book "The Encyclopedia of Early American Sewing Machines, 3rd Edition" by Carter Bays, and he has a short section on machines of the era I'm interested in. " A comprehensive list of vintage sewing machines (circa 1900-1925)" and then a "brief company history" of the companies he considered of significance to this era. My goal was to have one from each company -

Davis (have)
Domestic (have)
AG Mason (have)
Household (have)
Foley & Wilson (have)
Standard (have)
Free (have)
National (have)
New Home (have)
White (have)
Wilcox & Gibbs (have)
Singer (have)

New Leader - Bays says this company is NOT the same as the earlier Leader Mfg that went out of business in 1884, but does not now know if it was a related. This second company has records of producing machines from 1926 -1933. He also says the names on the machine were related to the company name - such as New Century Leader, New Leader, New Love. Unfortunately for my needs, this book has only a handful of pages devoted to the machines I'm interested in. It has way more information on toy sewing machines!

The Boye list I have is from earlier than this machine would have been made, and I don't know if it's VS or Rotary.