ThayerRags

Yes, and don’t forget that it was the perfect place to write out that installment payment check to send in to Singer Headquarters each month to pay for that desk and sewing machine!

CD in Oklahoma

KLO

But CD, wasn't that desk and 15-91 well worth writing the monthly check for especially if you made your own clothing and your kids' clothing or home deco items or quilts or whatever else you needed sewn? I would suppose a lot of people could not afford to lay out all the money needed at once to buy one of these setups so a payment plan might have been the only way to buy such a multi-use item.

Cathi, thanks for the added info. I still swoon eveytime I see one of these cabinets. I almost did not get mine but thankfully my dh saw the "want" in my eye when I examined it and went back and bought it for me. A nice surprise! Mine had both type darners in the drawers along with other dodads.

ThayerRags

Oh yes!!! That was my point! Singer was one of the first companies to institute a payment plan so that the average home-maker could afford Singer products on a small budget. And if the lady of the house could get a beautiful sewing machine cabinet that could also replace that old bill desk without needing any additional floor space, so much the better!

My Mother bought her new Singer 301A portable on the payment plan in 1958. I have photo-copies of the contract. Since she didn’t get the fancy Singer Cabinet with it, she had to write the $11.82 check out on the kitchen table each month, to send it to the Singer Acceptance Department, 808 S. Broadway, Fifth Floor, Los Angeles 14, California, due on the 15th of each month. After a trade-in (Singer 66 Treadle $20) and down payment ($50), she paid off $141.80 that way ($12.90 Carrying Charge included). I don’t know if she ever felt bad that she couldn’t dip her pen in a Singer ink well to write her check. She never has mentioned it, and she still has the machine. She saved it for me, and wanted me to take it this past Labor Day Holiday, but I turned it down. She’s living with my sister now, and she only has one sewing machine, so I asked Mom to give it to my sister for a back-up machine. I have two of my Mom’s Mother’s machines, and my sister had no family machines. Besides that, my wife and I already have three Singer 301A machines. My wife uses hers almost nightly.

CD in Oklahoma

KLO

Oh CD, my apologies if you took my comment the wrong way as I may be doingto yours now. I did not know that Singer was the first "payment plan" company. Makes me love the old Singers even more. What a wonderful thing they did for the average sewing homemaker.

sewbeadit

CD, great story, makes me feel like I was there too. I am one that didn't know they made one of those ink well cabinets too, I have passed up several of those type of cabinets because I no longer have room for cabinets, but they do look neat and they sound even neater with the inkwell. Gosh so much info on here and this is not getting me to slow down on my want list!

ThayerRags

KLO, we’re good. I saw nothing wrong in your post, and I meant no harm in mine.

I don’t know if Singer was the first sewing machine company to offer a payment plan, but it was one of the first. In my Mom’s Singer papers, there’s a Bill of Sale, Chattel Mortgage, Promissory Note, Warrantee, and Payment Coupon Book (empty, so she must have made all of her payments). It’s all explained in a formal letter from G.R. Hillier, Manager, Singer Sewing Machine Company, Acceptance Department, Los Angeles. Remember the payment coupon books that you had to tear a little perforated piece out of it and include it in with your payment?

CD in Oklahoma

KLO

Thanks CD, no harm done either way. Funny how typed messages can take a turn toward just how you mean them or go 180* and become something else as opposed to hearing a person's speech inflections and knowing exactly what they mean.

Sounds like you have some great paperwork about Singers and how they were bought and sold way back when. Wonder if there is a Singer museum of sorts anywhere that would have similar items on display? Maybe the Smithsonian? Well, maybe other than Macybaby's (Cathi's) shed museum and I don't know if she has documents related to Singer sales. Still, it can be fascinating to see the dates and read the documents from early times.

Rose_P

They probably thought that providing the ink well would help to sell the hubby on getting the machine with cabinet for the little lady, since it could be his desk when she wasn't sewing, or more likely, her sewing machine when he wasn't paying bills. I had a 201-2 in one of those cabinets for a year or so, but gave it to my daughter-in-love when we moved and I needed to downsize a bit. Thought I'd post a picture of the cabinet here so people can see what we're talking about, if they haven't seen them. This is how it looked when I got it. I'm sorry I don't have a picture showing the inkwell in the upper left drawer. My inkwell was also missing the lid. I thought it was just a pin holder.