The workshop
Hand sewing machine
Still sews a straight seam, if you turn it slowly.
- Made by
- Unknown maker
- Date
- About 1905
- Material
- Cast iron, steel, walnut
- Size
- 40 cm long
- Cost new
- Four pounds ten, on weekly payments
- Came from
- Dorothy Merrin’s house, 2009
On view The workshop, by the window. Ground floor, the old grinding hull.
Bought on weekly payments in 1905, a shilling a week for ninety weeks. The gold flowers have worn away where a right hand rested on the arm.
We keep it in the workshop gallery because most of what it made was for work: aprons, knife rolls, sacking for the packing room. The library lends a later machine of the same kind.
Its twin is in the library of things. A 1950s hand machine of the same kind, serviced by Winston. £2 a week, Saturday mornings.
How to borrowMore from the workshop.
Table forks, worn through
Merrin & Sons, Tenter Lane, 1924The workshop, on the packing tableCost new: nine shillings the dozen
Pocket knife, bone handle
Merrin & Sons, Tenter Lane, about 1900The workshop, on the grinders’ benchCost new: a shilling (staff price, fourpence)
Hand brace
Unknown maker, Sheffield, about 1920The workshop, on the wall rackCost new: seven and six
Where to see it
The workshop, ground floor.
You’ll find it by the window, on the ground floor. The lift is by the front desk.
Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, and until 20:00 on Thursdays.