Behind the Scenes at the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW - Chubb's Antiques Roadshow

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Feb, 1999 by Kimberly Lankford, Margaret Ringer

A TALE OF PIRATING. With that information, Shaffer e-mailed several collectors for more details. One told him it could be either a Shaw & Clark or a Goodspeed & Wyman model, also from the 1860s, which could sell for between $250 and $1,000, depending on the condition.

Meanwhile, we contacted experts listed in Maloney's Antiques & Collectibles Resource Directory (Antique Trader Books, $28.95), which has contact information about dealers, collectors and clubs for all kinds of objects, and sent photos of the sewing machine to a few.

Graham Forsdyke, of the International Sewing Machine Society (www.ismacs.net) in London, told us the machine might not be a Shaw & Clark. "More likely, it was produced by one of the many pirate factories that operated in New England," he says. He explained that Howe, Singer, Grover & Baker, and Wheeler & Wilson owned all the sewing-machine patents and attempted to charge every other maker $5 per machine. Pirate corn* parties didn't want to pay up, so they kept a low profile and left no identifying marks on their machines.

We got more information from Frank Smith, who owns and runs F. Smith's Antique Sewing Machine Museum, in Arlington, Tex. Smith says machines like Shaffer's were the low-end models of the 1860s. They didn't work very well because companies tried to skirt patent fees by having their machines stitch with one thread instead of two, and the stitching pulled out easily. Since they couldn't emphasize quality, they made their machines look pretty--with ornate cast-iron frames and elaborate paintings on the base.

These nameless machines weren't made for long--after the pirate companies were chased down for patent fees, they changed the style of their machines and stamped them with the manufacturer's name and patent information. Few survived the Civil War; fewer made it out in good condition.

Smith says the painted flowers and gold leaf on Shaffer's machine are in unusually good condition for a Civil War-era model, but he found a hole drilled into the base. Without the hole, it could sell for about $3,500, but the hole brings the value down to between $1,000 and $1,500.

"You can't go down to your local antiques shop and get that price," Smith says. "They don't know the values of sewing machines."

It's tough to find more than one sewing-machine expert in any town, but the Internet is a treasure trove for collectors. Sites such as www.viznoise.net are devoted specifically to sewing-machine sales, and most of the collectors with Web sites buy and sell, too.

But for now, the machine remains on Shaffer's shelf. He's not ready to sell it, especially now that he knows more about its history.