Description: Extremely rare German Heinrich Grossmann Alemannia "Box" hand stich hat making machine. It dates from the early 1900's and is a very important machine in the hat making industry / Millinery. Read some of the interesting history below. This is a museum piece but of course it can be used if you wish to do so. The machine is complete and in very good condition but does need servicing. It turns but very stiff at the moment. It is displayed on a wooden frame in the photographs . I will include this in the sale if you want it but It needs to be altered to size. As you can see in the photographs it needs to be on a wooden frame or on a table. The machine will not sit flat on a table as it has an embossment underneath. See photographs. If you have any questions please email.HISTORYEven as late as 1865 pundits declared that there would never be a sewing machine that could sew a straw hat. Within a decade Willcox and Gibbs had proved them wrong with the visible-stitch straw-hat machine which dominated the Luton-based hat trade until 1887 when the company, working closely with the Luton factory owner Edmund Wiseman, produced the Hand-Stitch Straw Hat machine. It was completely different from the visible stitch - yet another variant of the domestic machine. The hand stitcher had two needles, one eye-pointed and the other barbed, allowing the thread to pass from one to the other, revolutionised the hat-making industry.By foot power alone it was said to be possible to produce as many as 144 hats in a 10-hour day on one machine. This Machine is the high quality German copy GROSSMANN MACHINESH. Grossmann manufactured sewingmachines in Dresden, Germany priorto World War 2. Many such factorieswere appropriated by the nazis for themaking of gun mechanisms due to theprecision machinery and capable work-force available in them. The Grossmannfactory was levelled by allied bombingin 1943, destroying all company records. SHIPPING TO USA IS $145 dollars. Please enquire for postage to your country.
Price: 750 USD
Location: Zoetermeer
End Time: 2024-08-10T12:39:11.000Z
Shipping Cost: 145 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Original/Reproduction: Antique Original
Time Period Manufactured: Pre-1930
