About this objectDonated to Stoke Stable Museum by N.J. Bowen in 1977, this Willcox & Gibbs Chain Stitch Sewing Machine is reputed to have been the ‘first sewing machine brought across the Blue Mountains’. Dating to c.1877, this machine is contemporary with the Powerhouse Museum’s earliest Willcox & Gibbs. Sewing machines revolutionised nineteenth century domestic life and the textiles industry. A means of reducing the time spent on production of clothing at home, the sewing machine was particularly popular amongst low-income families (Godley 2001).
The Stoke Stable sewing machine is a later model of the first chain stitch sewing machine invented in 1857 by James Edward Allen Gibb, an American farmer from Virginia. With the upper components broadly modelled on a newspaper picture of a Grover & Baker sewing machine, Gibb’s chain stitch mechanism was in fact unique and did not rely on a bobbin. In partnership with James and Charles Willcox, chain stitch sewing machines were initially manufactured by the J.R. Brown & Sharp factory on Rhode Island. Soon imported into Australia, they were available in the colonies from at least 1862 by auction from Fraser and Cohen (Argus 1862) and were advertised in The Courier at a price of £9, available from S. Hebblewhite, Sydney (Courier 1863). An 1871 E. Geach advertisement promotes these machines as ‘Simplest and Best’ and capable of 1,000 stitches per minute in silence and offers a price of £8 10s (Argus 1871).
Significance
This item derives historical significance from its position in the transition from hand sewing to machine sewing in the domestic and industrial spheres. As the earliest - or one of the earliest - sewing machine to be brought over the Blue Mountains, it represents the domestication of the rural communities in the Central West and a transition from the earlier pioneering, frontier culture of the west. The Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine is aesthetically significant as an example of innovative technical design married with artistic elements such as the G-shaped sewing machine head. Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines were popular, common devices thanks to their relative affordability in comparison to competitors. Numerous examples abound, both within the district (in the Viv Kable Collection and the Millthorpe Golden Memories Museum) and worldwide. This item is representative of its type, displaying as it does no later modifications. As the (reputedly) first of its type in western NSW, however, this item has value as a rare object. Finally, the sewing machine is in good condition and remains in a potentially functional state with working parts that show a full range of movement.
Kim Tuovinen 2010
