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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.
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The Atlas
Sewing Machine Company Atlas was the Greek god
that held the world on his shoulders, the strength and reliability of
Atlas meant it was the perfect name for a sewing machine. Although the Atlas Sewing
Machine Company of Their first imported Atlas
model was the ‘A’ made by Bremer und Brückmann and was a Howe copy
from his 1860’s design. The machine also sold as the Collier
Advanced by Collier’s in Clapham Road, London and the Brunonia.
Then came the very popular
vibrating shuttle model ‘B’ another German import which was made by the
Grimme & Natalis Co, Braunschweig. The model 'B' clearly states on
the bed made in Brunswick, which sounds so English. There seemed to be a thousand Brunswick's
from Brighton to Scarborough. Anything made before the 1890's Trade
Descriptions Act each could claim, more or less, what they liked.
Putting Brunswick on the bed would make buyers think they were buying
British and not in fact the British pronunciation of 'Braunschweig,'
Germany. Very few importers bothered to point out the machine was
German. One exception was Charles Bradbury as can be see in his advert
further down.
K. A. Natalis and Carl
Grimme had been producing sewing machines independently but in December
1870 they joined forces. The model ‘B’ was fondly nicknamed the Brunswick Special. All model ‘B’s’ were guaranteed for a
period of four years and retailed in 1900 for the princely sum of nearly
two pounds. Remember the weekly average wage was probably only about ten
shillings. So the machine would have been a months wages! You can see
from the advert that they had retail premises in Severn Sister
Road and Kilburn High Road, London.
Several other wholesalers such as the Co-op or Co-operative Society sold the imported Atlas but under their own brand name.
The model B and the later
model ‘C’ and ‘D’ were popular from the late 1880’s up until
just before the First World War when many Germany
companies switched to arms manufacturing. They also sold the Countess
and Una machines.
There was a beautiful
Atlas Mother
of pearl inlay fiddlebase model, basically a smaller 3/4 size copy of
the Singer New Family transverse shuttle. Although Grimme & Natalis
made similar machines it could also have been imported from
the German company that made the Vesta machine called LOD, short for L.O.
Dietrich. They produced machines as early as 1871.
Or possibly Gustav Winselmann of Mother of pearl became so expensive that by the late
Victorian period it had become un-commercial. Having to hand polish 15
layers of japanning to find the inlaid mother of pearl took endless
hours of work, but how wonderful it looked. The last machine I am
aware of at the moment is the model ‘D’ imported from the Giant
American New Home Company previously the Gold Medal Sewing Machine
Company and today trading as Janome.
Possibly a Winselmann, Grimme or Dietrich Import, the Atlas Fiddlebase. The Grimme & Natalis
Company's Agent in Now one additional point to mention is that there was an Atlas marketed in America around the same period, probably by the New Home Sewing Machine Co.
I have not seen a mention
of the British Atlas Company after the First World War and expect they
ceased trading around that period. The Atlas machines do turn regularly
turn up but usually in poor condition due to the thin transfers. I only
have one really nice Brunswick Special in my whole collection. I hope you found this
research useful and as I am constantly updating my information if you
have any details please do mail me. alexsussex@aol.com Time for a great story: Ena Wilf & the one-armed machinist A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires
CONTACT: alexsussex@aol.com Copyright © |
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