Originally Posted by kwendt
The only thing on the box is a faint oval stamped into the wood says, Patented 188?2 or 7? then February xx. Can't really read it. No other markings. Okay, what is all this stuff? I KNOW it doesn't belong to the 201-2. Did White use puzzle boxes?
Thanks! kim
Your puzzle box would have originally come with a Singer long bobbin machine - probably the VS 2 you mentioned - or maybe a 27/28. You know how strange stuff always end up in the drawers of a sewing machine cabinet, some of them even put there by the seamstress. :)
To someone who doesn't know anything about sewing machines, "parts is parts," and that's why you buy Kenmore cabinets with Singer parts and Singers with Free No 5 parts, etc. :)
Your puzzle box has the clip still attached which holds five long bobbins between the prongs. You can see it in the manual I posted earlier in the Style No. 3 booklet.
The weird looking round-bottomed foot is the early quilting foot.
Singer patented this box in 1889, which is the number stamped on the oval on the box no matter what year they were actually made. I think they were made for a relatively short time, but there were a few different collections of accessories that went into them.