Famous Barr Special
 

I picked up this machine today, Famous & Barr was a local/regional department store headquartered in St Louis near where I live, and my grandmother worked in the millinery department there, maybe 100 years ago.

I don't know if it works yet, but it has the shuttle and bobbin and a needle still in it. The decals are in good shape, and the flowers are deeper purple.

Leon, the picture of the motor is for you. I though you might appreciate the bar mechanism connecting the bobbin winder to the motor such that when you push the bobbin winder to the machine the bar lifts the motor/drive wheel off of the hand wheel; there is an outer pulley to run a belt to the bobbin winder.

Janey, I'm sort of hoping you'll jump in and tell me who made this machine...please?? I'll start looking either way.

Thanks JoeJr. I don't remember seeing a winder tied to the motor like that before. That's gonna take a bit of head scratching. FWIW the motor connections look like White, Westinghouse or later Kenmore. The spool pin being that far forward may be a clue to it's origin also.

A quick web search shows one of those worthpoint listings for sold machines. As I do not pay for it, all I was able to see was that they claim that it was made by Domestic. A quick way to verify it would be to look at the shuttle if it has one as Domestic shuttles are a bit different.

I sure miss Needlebar's picture gallery. It looks like Colorado Jim beat me to it. It is all so confusing, but I'm going to agree that it is probably a Domestic. It looks a great deal like a New Millard or New Willard. To me the font is confusing, but has the similar pansy decals. http://www.kelsew.info/Domestic/dome...lsnolinks.html shows a New Willard as a Domestic machine. There a QB thread with the machine https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintag...e-t197854.html where Jon has a Minnesota E manual at https://www.quiltingboard.com/7764814-post25.html The Minnesota E, I believe shows up a a 117 nomenclature which would indicate a White machine. There is another thread at

Interestingly, the ISMACS needle list only shows "New Millard" and lists it as a White machine. Additionally, one uses 15x1 and the other 20x1.

Maybe Jon or Glenn will pop in and give some additional info.

Neat machine and interesting about the way the bobbin winder works with the motor. I like purple (as if you couldn't tell by my signature, LOL) and that would be neat to have a black machine with purple decals.https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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Thanks everyone, and this looks just like the machine in the manual (including the motor/bobbin winder setup) and other post Janey linked. The shuttle looks different than a 27/127 but I haven't put them side by side yet, and I have a handy chart from another board to check the needle.
I have a Kenmore foot control, and the machine it belongs with, which I will try as far as fitting a connector to this motor.
I'll post a picture after it's cleaned up.

Janey, have you tried putting one of your Needlebar links into the Wayback machine? (The internet archives.)

Yes, but it is not very helpful. There is still some good info on the site but the picture gallery was fun to peruse and had some good info on some of the image pages. There are few thumbnails available at https://web.archive.org/web/20160428...ndex.php?cat=2 but not near as helpful as the full pages with images.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

The Famous Barr was made by White, takes a 20x1 needle or Boye 12 needles

Well, my job is finished and the machine is off to one of my sister's to display. It sews stitches, although makes a lot of noise doing it; without thread it spins very smoothly and quietly. The light is on the back side of the machine now. The case isn't the best, but the neighbor with the wood working equipment was in a hurry...

Janey, the decal close up is for your enjoyment.

Thank you, that is neat. Nice job on getting it cleaned up and sewing.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.