Imperial sewing machine
 

I bought this little sewing machine because I like the look of it.
I'm unable to find any information on it as there does not seem to be a model number anywhere on it.
The only number is on the bottom and is J 51110
Would anyone know the approx. year of manufacture? Or point me in the direction to do a bit of searching about the machine.
Thanks!

quick and easy answer. It looks to be a Japanese clone of a Singer 15. Lots of info here about them, but the numbers mean very little and age is a crap shoot.

That said. I am puzzled by the harp space. It looks like it maybe be a 3/4 sized 15. Not many around. It also has a quick release for the presserfoot. Kinda neat if you vary your workload a lot. I would have been quite happy to find it.

Leon - The size of the machine is what made me buy it appeared to be smaller than my old Singer.
It was only $40 Cdn so I took a chance that it would be in working condition as the owner did say that it did work. Will test it this afternoon.
Thanks for the info.

Yep, it's a clone. Has the same decals my early Universal clone had on the bed. This is probably late 40s-very early 50s going by what I can see of the face plate.

Cari

I can see why you like it. It's adorable!

What a cute machine! I would have bought it too!

Since this my first vintage machine that I want to actually use I have a question about electricity.
How do I know that the electrical cord it good to use and that I won't either start a fire or electrocute myself? Yes I'm a sissy. The cord is not frayed, my only concern is that the prongs seem to be a little loose but that could be normal. I have the thing properly threaded and got the bobbin thread up after figuring out that the needle had been put in incorrectly. I guess that's why it seemed to be loose and moving back and forth easily. Figured it out when I went to you tube to see how to thread the machine.
Thanks again Leon for letting me know that it is a Singer 15 clone, that helped me find threading instructions.

I would ha e grabbed that one for sure.....adorable!

Looking closely at where the power cord goes into the cord set block on the right back corner, it looks like the cord has pulled out and exposed copper wire. That may be an artifact of the photo conditions, but I would check that carefully. I have replaced plugs on several machines, it's easy. The big box home repair stores have plugs in several configurations. For that machine, I would get a two prong plug. Cut the plug off the wire, strip the insulation off the wires, follow instructions with the plug to clamp the wires to the terminals and the cord into the plug.

An easier fix is to order a new cord block with included power cord and plug for $13 US dollars
https://www.shop.sew-classic.com/Cor...143-SCE143.htm

I would wonder if this is an early clone, in 1940s, only because there is no feed dog lowering dial on the right front of the bed. That seems to have been a common improvement in the Japanese "15 clones" later in production.

Thanks Rotary Queen.
I checked where you thought the wire may have come out of the box, but that is simply a bit of the same paper as the box liner nicely wrapped around the base where the wire meets the box. Intact. The prongs were just bent, so straitened them out, plugged it into a power bar just in case.
It runs! Oh my, what a beautiful sound and lovely stitch.

Now to find a 1/4 foot which I'm sure exists.