Originally Posted by
Rodney
The girl on the phone was right. It's the reproduction model 15 that Singer authorized. It's a real Singer, just not an original model 15. Usually when I see them for sale they're listed as "antique" which they're not and the seller usually wants a completely ridiculous amount of money. The feed dog knob on the bed is a give-away. The real model 15s never had one and real 15s with perfect sphinx decals aren't common.
You did well at $5.00 IMO
Congrats on your new machine.
Rodney
Rodney, there are some other clues as well. Decals- they used some decals on repro models that weren't on the original models. Tension assembly- plastic. Nuff said. Electrical terminal- different than the old ones, again, plastic. Treadles- pressboard cabinets and poorly cast leg irons. The last one I saw in the wild was in the west Olympia Goodwill marked as an antique for $175. Nothing I tried to tell them would convince them that it wasn't. It sat there for a quite a while. Have you seen the ones that have been popping up on CL lately in Seattle? There's been two treadles and a hand crank listed as antiques. The repros aren't hard to spot even in a crappy picture.
Cari