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The Royal Sewing Machine Company

 

 

  Alex I Askaroff

Alex has spent a lifetime in the sewing industry and is considered one of the foremost experts of pioneering machines and their inventors. He has written extensively for trade magazines, radio, television, books and publications world wide. Books by Alex Askaroff.

Most of us know the name Singer but few are aware of his amazing life story, his rags to riches journey from a little runaway to one of the richest men of his age. The story of Isaac Merritt Singer will blow your mind, his wives and lovers his castles and palaces all built on the back of one of the greatest inventions of the 19th century. For the first time the most complete story of a forgotten giant is brought to you by Alex Askaroff.

 

 


The Royal Sewing Machine Co

 

 

The Royal Sewing Machine Company

 

 

Now before we get to The Royal Sewing Machine Company of Small Heath, Birmingham, England, and the machines they produced we must talk about the Agenoria. The reason is that the Agenoria sewing machine was around slightly before the Royal Sewing Machine Company bought the company that made the Agenoria. So although the fabulous Agenoria was later made by The Royal Sewing Machine Company of Small Heath, Birmingham, it also pre-dates it. Did that make sense? It will become clear I promise.

 

I will give you the history of the Agenoria (one of the most beautiful sewing machines ever made) and then incorporate the Royal Sewing Machine Co into our story. It is brief but interesting period of British engineering and social history.
 

 

 

The Shakespear Sewing Machine
 

By The Royal Sewing Machine Company
 


I have a YouTube clip on this machine in action.

 

 

Let's just quickly name the main sewing machines that The Royal Sewing Machine Company made. The Royal Sewing Machine Company was, in its time, a very successful middle England firm that hand built superb and collectible machines. The ones that survive today fetch excellent money when they do appear on auction sites.

 

The Royal Sewing Machine Co was responsible for the manufacture of many models. They were patentees and sole makers of the following sewing machines:
 

 

The Royal (W&W copy)

 

 

The Royal Milton
 

 

The Avon
 

 

The Times
 

 

The Monarch
 

 

The Regent
 

 

The Shakespear
 

 

The Challenge
 

 

The Agenoria (once it bought the rights)
 

 

The Windsor
 

 

The Eureka
 

 

The Eugenie (chain stitch)
 

 

The South Kensington
 

 

J W Sleath

 

 

 

 

So now let's get to the Agenoria sewing machine one of my favourites in my collection.

 

 

 

The Agenoria

 


The Agenoria Sewing Machine circa 1870

Agenoria or Agenora was the Roman Goddess of Silence and Industry giving relief from pain and anxiety. She was a popular goddess among the industrious Romans and also the protector of Rome. She was offered prayers and worship when Rome was under threat.  Her annual festival was held at sunset on the Winter solstice, December 21, the shortest day of the year. She was often shown with a finger to her lips as if imploring silence.

   
The Goddess Agenoria

The goddess has inspired many people over the centuries with ships, steam engines and many others being named after her.

    

We are concerned with Arthur Isaac Maxfield who gave the Agenoria name to his factory and to his most stunning sewing machine. Designed in the 1860’s when beauty and practicality went hand in hand The Victorian Agenoria has often been called the most beautiful sewing machine ever made.

 
The Agenoria sewing machine by Maxfield Pre Royal ownership.

Considered one of the most beautiful sewing machines ever, excuse the dust! I call it protection from ultraviolet .

The superb sewing machine design was registered in 1869 and patented on Aug 20th 1870. The Agenoria sewing machine was originally manufactured by Arthur Isaac Maxfield at his Agenoria works in Birmingham using the Harris & Judson patented movement and had a balance wheel that could be completely disengaged for bobbin winding. In fact they actually advertised the machine as the Patent Loose Wheeled Model. The first models went on sale for the princely sum of £4. 4s. (Four pounds and four shillings) around two months average wages in 1870! Wow can you imagine paying that today for a sewing machine. It just goes to show how important they were.


The Avon sewing machine from the Royal Sewing Machine Company showing the 'Shakespeare' trademark

On the brass needlebar cover of the Agenoria was a Registered Design lozenge for 24th February 1869 (just beneath the machine's name). Below that is an image of the Goddess Agenoria herself sitting beside a lion while quietly working. The trade mark of George and the Dragon was always on the needleplate and later on the brass head plates. The images show St George riding astride a stallion with a sword stabbing at a writhing fire-breathing dragon below.

 

The brass end-plate showing the Goddess Agenoria

The machine was an instant success winning the silver medal of excellence at the International London Exhibition of 1870. Later a special silver plated model was presented to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. She loved the machine and later gave her seal of approval to the Agenoria. The Agenoria then became by Royal Appointment.  Copies of these silver plated models were sold for £6. 6s. The attachments were silver plated on all models. I have never seen a silver plated model!

 

Winners of the silver medal in 1870

Maxfield must have run into financial problems or been offered a price he could not refuse for he later sold the Agenoria to The Franklin Sewing Machine Company of Park Road, Soho, Birmingham. They produced Maxfield’s machine at the Franklin Works, Birmingham, England. Engraved on the cloth plate during this period was the company trade mark, a bobbin with crossed needles with The Franklin Co around it.

By 1875 The Franklin Sewing Machine Co was taken over by Joseph Harris & Co who continued to produce the superb Agenoria and renamed the newly enlarged company to the Imperial Sewing Machine Co. But not for long...


The Eureka Sewing Machine by Joseph Harris. Tales tell that this may be the man himself at his Royal Sewing Machine foundry in Birmingham with his hand resting on his machine. Is he having that eureka moment?

The start of the Royal Sewing Machine Company


The Royal Sewing Machine Company. Small Heath, Birmingham.

 

 

In 1877 this firm was taken over once again. This time it was by the Royal Sewing Machine Company of Small Heath, Birmingham. The company had been making sewing machines very successfully for many years. It was formed by Thomas Shakespear (no e on the end) & George Illiston in 1868. See I told you I would get to it eventually...

 

The machine was sold with several different treadles

By incorporating the Agenoria they had removed some competition and increased their range, a simple business tactic. For a short period they also sold a superb Wheeler & Wilson copy called The Royal sewing machine. These machines were mainly on treadles and an exact duplicate of the popular rotary Wheeler & Wilson machines.


The Royal Sewing machine Trademark,  Shakespear spelt with no e on the end after the founder Thomas Shakespear.

Their factory was at Herbert Road, Small Heath, Birmingham and from then on the Agenoria had some of the Illistone patents on the model incorporating changes to the shuttle and stitch length mechanisms.

The Royal Sewing Machine


The Royal Sewing Machine (Wheeler & Wilson copy) circa 1868. This would have been on a treadle base.

The Royal Sewing Machine Company of Small Heath, Birmingham had been making sewing machines very successfully from the 1860s. Founded by Thomas Shakespear (no e on the end) & George Illiston their flagship first machine was The Royal Sewing Machine in 1868. It was a bit obvious really that they would use that name for their first and finest model.

The company were renowned for quality and reliability and survived for a number of years under different ownership and management. However out of all the machines that they made none was more impressive than their first model, The Royal. 

The Royal was a straight copy of the early 1860s bestselling American Wheeler & Wilson No1. When The Royal was made (around 1868) W&W were the biggest selling sewing machines in the world. It would not be long before Isaac Singer’s amazing Singer model 12 overtook it and copies of the ‘fiddlebase’ soon followed. There is some question as to Wheeler & Wilson taking action against The Royal Sewing Machine Company to 'cease and desist' with the manufacture of The Royal sewing machine. I can see why, it was a straight copy of the early Model 1 W&W. This may explain why so few of The Royal sewing machines ever turn up. 99% of the ones that do are treadle machines but a handful of hand cranks do survive. I have one in my Sewalot Collection and Graham Forsdyke (ISMACS founder) has another in an oval case.

The Royal Sewing Machine Hand Crank

This machine (in my Sewalot Collection) is as rare as it gets, The Royal Sewing Machine. To Graham Forsdyke, Maggie Snell and my knowledge, this is the only square-boxed hand crank model ever to have surfaced (certainly in this museum quality original condition). Is it unique? Was it a special order or prototype? Only time will tell. Certainly using it as a hand crank is awkward as the material falls over the operators hand as they turn the hand crank. For now all we can do is look on in quiet admiration at a piece of 19th Century engineering majesty.

Agents

Weaver & Son

Agents for Royal Sewing Machines, Birmingham.

38 Broad Street, Bath.

In 1882 The Royal Sewing Machine Company Ltd diversified its range of products and became the Royal Machine Manufacturing Co. In the sewing machine line they produced beauties such as the Shakespear, Challenge and Avon. However diversification allowed the company to go into production of many items including bicycles and tricycles.


The Challenge Sewing Machine, Birmingham. Circa 1880. Sent in by Rob USA.

The Royal Mail Tricycle No2


The Royal Mail Tricycle had detachable wheels so that you could store it indoors and good brakes which was a bonus! It came at a hefty price £17.17s almost half a years wages.

Royal Machine Manufacturing Company
1882

The machines were sold to dealers such as Cole & Co of Edinburgh and A. R. Farm of Renfield Street, Glasgow.

 

They also supplied machines marked with other businesses names to some larger suppliers such as Colliers in London who had their own Collier badged R. M. M. Co machine.

The most profitable agent was E. Pepper of Crescent Buildings, Bridge Street, Newcastle-Under-lyme.

 

All these machines are immediately identifiable as made by the Birmingham company due to the similarities of design.

 

Boxes were pine or walnut depending on the price

The company was out paced by sewing machine giants such as Singer and Jones finally ceased trading in 1888. It made little news at the time as all the papers were focused on the brutish murders in Whitechapel by the infamous Jack the Ripper.

The Windsor Sewing Machine

The Windsor sewing machine made by the Royal. Notice the Shakespeare logo on the bed. By the end the Royal were copying other successful designs of the period like the Bradbury and Jones machines which had Palace approval.

While the Royal Sewing Machine Company may have faded into history they have left behind a legacy of some of the most beautiful sewing machines of all time.  


The Sleath Lockstitch made by The Royal Sewing Machine Co. If you ordered enough machines Royal would mark them with any name you wish. J W Sleath was probably a successful retailer or agent of the period.

 


 

 
 

Most of us know the name Singer but few are aware of his amazing life story, his rags to riches journey from a little runaway to one of the richest men of his age. The story of Isaac Merritt Singer will blow your mind, his wives and lovers his castles and palaces all built on the back of one of the greatest inventions of the 19th century. For the first time the most complete story of a forgotten giant is brought to you by Alex Askarof

Fancy a funny read: Ena Wilf  & The One-Armed Machinist

See Alex Askaroff on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plq99Y7hI9U&t=751s

Well that's it, I do hope you enjoyed my work. I spend countless hours researching and writing these pages and I love to hear from people so drop me a line and let me know what you thought: alexsussex@aol.com

 

 
   

 

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