WILLCOX & GIBBS SERIAL NUMBERS, SEWALOT

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Dating Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machines
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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.

Check out the complete history of:Willcox & Gibbs

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I have a short Youtube clip on the machine as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdeINfVy8pM&feature=youtu.be

Willcox & Gibbs dating

Dating W&G chain stitch machines is not an exact art but this is a close as we are going to get.

There were good years and bad with sewing machine production so numbers can vary greatly from year to year.

Year Numbers made

1857 1-10,000
1858 10,001-20,000
1859 20,001-30,000
1860 30,001-40,000
1861 40,001-50,000
1862 50,001-60,000
1863 60,001-70,000
1864 70,001-80,000
1865 80,001-90,000
1866 90,001-100,000
1867 100,001-115,000
1868 115,001-130,000
1869 130,001-145,000
1870 145,001-160,000
1871 160,001-190,127
1872 190,128-223,766
1873 223,767-239,647
1874 239,648-253,357
1875 253,358-267,879
1876 267,880-279,637
1877 279,638 - 324,999
1878 325,000 -
1880 365,000 -

1905--1906 540,001 - 550,000
1907--1908 550,001 - 560,000
1909--1911 560,001 - 570,000
1912--1913 570,001 - 580,000
1913--1914 580,001 - 590,000
1915--1916 590,001 - 650,000
1917--1921 650,001 - 660,000

Manufacturing of the Chain stitch slowly dropped until production ceased later in the 20th century.

Note: Willcox & Gibbs manufactured several other types of sewing machine and continued for decades with their industrial machines.

Sometime around 1877-1880 most W&G chain stitch machines were prefixed with the letter A though there was a B series as well (scalloped bases) and to add more confusion there was a later series (grey electric) with no letter like the first pre-1877 ones and the free-arm hat machines which had a letter S prefix.

Early rare Willcox & Gibbs 1870 model chain stitch machine

This is the pre 1875 model without automatic tensioner and no letter A prefix before the serial number.

What we are going to do here is concentrate on the letter A prefix models which make up the majority of post 1876/7 machines.

Willcox & Gibbs hat chains stitch model 200 series had an S letter prefix before the serial number

Willcox & Gibbs 200 free arm hat machine

Example of letter A prefix Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch sewing machine post 1875

Dating your Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine

To work out an approximate date of for the A series (only for machines with the letter A, Automatic, before the number) try this formula. This is by no means perfect but does work in many cases. You must pick the date which is between the two methods below.

Method A.

Take the number from the sewing machine above, ignore the A, (545351), minus 279638 from it. Divide by 17500. Answer, 15.1836. Ignore everything but the first two digits (15). Add this to 1877. 1877 + 15, bingo date...1892.

Now using the Courtney Willis method of dating the Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines (with the A, Automatic prefix).

Method B.

Divide your serial number (in our instance A545351) by 8,000. Ignore the numbers after the decimal point and then add the first two numbers to 1838. The date for the our machine becomes 1906.

Finally.

Take the middle date from the two methods, 1906 and 1892. Approximate year of manufacture for the above machine becomes around 1900. Just a few years from correct.

By averaging the two dates in the middle, using both A + B methods, you may get close to your manufacturing date.

Here is a great invoice for a new W&G in 1911 with the serial number 578938 sent to me. By using method B we can date this machine to 1910, allowing for a period of time between manufacture and sale method B shows a perfect outcome.

I do hope that helps you work out a rough age of your little W&G machine.

If anyone out there has better records of the W&G machines or worked out a better dating system for the missing W&G dates please do let me know: alexsussex@aol.com

Willcox & Gibbs history

No1 New release Amazon 2014. 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.

Fancy a funny free story: Ena Wilf & the one-armed Machinist

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All my latest books are now available on Amazon in all formats.

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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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