MAGNIFICENT MOLDACOTS
Moldacot lock-stitch rotary sewing machine of
1885
Moldacots are my all-time favourite antique sewing machines and I have
the largest collection of them in the world.
The Moldacot
sewing machine is one of the most sought after and widely collected
Victorian sewing machines of all time. There are just about enough of
them floating around in collections, boxes and drawers to satisfy most
collectors.
The Moldacot
appeals to sewing machine collectors but also collectors of Victoriana
and engineering enthusiasts. It is a fascinating small piece of
engineering that took the Victorian era by storm.
So where do we start with this superb mechanical marvel
that was patented
in December 1885.
The Moldacot burst onto our markets on July 17th
1886. Prices seemed to vary from as high as 50
shillings to as low as three shillings and sixpence and the final sell
off.
The Moldacot
sewing machine took the sewing machine
market by storm. Described by the Financial News in glowing terms
"As the most useful invention of the century."
Other sewing
machine manufacturers must have been seriously worried that all of a
sudden here was a cheap small easy machine that could be carried with
ease bolted to any surface and sewn with. The chunky machine oozed
quality unlike the tin-plate toys. Also it was a lock-stitch.
From every angle the Moldacot is a masterpiece of
unique Victorian engineering
Within weeks the share issue was vastly over subscribed and
£100,000 poured in from investors hoping to make a killing with this
little gem. £100,000 was a vast sum in the Victorian era, when the
average weekly wage was a few shillings.
The advert read "The
Moldacot is a perfect lockstitch sewing machine that will take any
kind of material from the finest linen to the stoutest cloth."
Moldacot Sewing Machine Tins came in several
different colours.
Wow, was that an exaggeration! One of the reasons why this
ingenious machine fooled so many people was the fact that it was a
superbly engineered piece.
No stamped out piece of tin-plate this baby. And the idea was great, a
sewing machine that you could put in your pocket, wonderful.
" At last a machine well within the
reach of the classes" the papers of the day stated.
The reality was much further from the truth along with hair-loss
treatment and snake oil the Moldacot was a well engineered but a scam.
Whether it set out as a scam we shall probably never know.
Now don't get me wrong they
are fantastic machines I have the largest collection of them in the
world but they just do not sew well at all. In fact
99% could hardly make a stitch except in trained and skilful hands.
Read on...
The latest
marvel
To be exported all over the world
As recommended by the London Times
So wonderfully simple a child could use it!
Oh if only it were true...
We are surrounded with questions about the Moldacots. In the centre
of our web are the almost invisible inventors A.D.Moll
(Albert) and J.C.Cottam.
From their names on every machine, we
may guess that they were the beneficiaries of
the sales of the Moldacot sewing machine.
What was their connection with S.Rosenthal, the main
inventor possibly from Berlin?
I can't wait for the
Internet to develop further so that I can track these people down.
Recent developments at the Smithsonian have
shown S. Rosenthal may have been Sally
Rosenthal. She was connected to a
later Moldacot patent application and another toy
machine called La Queen. La Queen sewing
machines, similar to the
Tabitha
sewing machine are very rare.
La Queen Sewing Machine courtesy of
Don Shepherd
Although little else has turned up
to date. Also the names of, C.J.Croft, F.Dowling, JJ.Robinson, and
J.Holroyd. Wm.Bown and F.S.Sharpe are all connected with other various
Moldacot patent applications.
This makes things as clear as London pea soup.
Yet another patent application appears by Moll and Cottam in July
1886 when they applied for improvements to the Moldacot, mainly for
hand wheels that were later attached to the machines. However, they
were certainly not on the board of directors and no trace of them
turned up in the liquidation hearings. They seem to fade away into
history. Did they all run off together and live happily ever after in
a suburban semi-near Chelsea ?
The South
Australian Advertiser August 1886
Elected chairman of the recently floated
Moldacot Pocket Sewing Machine Company,
Mr. Howard Spensley hopes that he will
presently
be reaching the colony of Victoria, Australia, to dispose of the
reserved shares in the
successful
company.
The Moldacot bobbin and case are the smallest in the world!
Was the Moldacot bobbin and case from the
American Mitchell Patent of 1859, 26511?
The brilliant design detail is what made the
Moldacot stand out. The Moldacot had adjustable stitch length and
tension.
The Moldacot offices were
temporarily based at Bloomfield House London Wall and
58 Coleman Street London. The chairman Mr Arnold Pye Smith looked as
if he just sat by with the company secretary, Mr W.Irving whilst the
company fell apart around them.
To begin with they blamed the
inability to manufacture the machines as the cause of their demise but
we later find that thousands may have
been produced.
It is a big may, considering how few have turned up and
how creative accounting is prone to exaggerate in companies
that have been purposely formed to raise investment. Also taking into account the early floatation of the
company it is a very optimistic claim.
Most Moldacots had the London patent and stamped
Made in Germany if they were German and left plain if British.
The possibility that 60,000 Moldacots were produced is highly unlikely
but possible.
They are not the sort of thing that people throw away, they don't take
up space, they have no scrap value and they look interesting and feel
valuable. I would make a guess that less than a fifth of the
exaggerated total were actually produced out of which less than 1,000
may survive today.
By now the company was
also
advertising itself as the
Moldacot Colonial & Foreign Pocket Sewing
Machine Company, Ltd.
One of the earliest
Moldacots to surface so far, serial No 348 in a leather deluxe box.
This is the only known example of the London Patent machine that I
have seen-pre hand-wheel with such a low serial number, now in my
collection.
There were at least three main manufacturers,
two in Britain and one in Germany, although
the German Company has yet to come to light. If you
know of the German manufacture please mail me I would love to find
out:
alexsussex@aol.com
The British companies
were J.Holroyd of Tomlinson Street Manchester, and W.M.Bown of
Brearley Street Birmingham. Surprisingly all these models have
the London stamp on them. However I am not ruling out a London
manufacturer turning up! Almost any skilled small manufacturing or
jobbing engineering firm could make the Moldacot.
The machines sold
through a few retailers that did not normally stock sewing machines
like Stewart & Co of 249 Oxford Street, London. They also sold
watches, jewellery and fancy goods.
Every Moldacot
sent out thoroughly cleaned, oiled and in perfect working order
The Moldacot Company had loads of happy customers.
I have pages of testimonials. Were they made up?
Sale of the Century
Within two years the company had shot to the stars and collapsed
into the fiery pits of liquidation, manufacturing only a fraction of
the millions of machines that the chairman had
originally promised. There was no need for
Singer's to panic anymore.
Over £50,000, the
equivalent of well over a million today,
of shareholders money disappeared in such things as manufacturing
costs and patent rights.
Was this possibly a nice retirement for our
two inventors, Moll and Cottam? At a cost of 8 shillings to
manufacture (an unacceptably high amount seeing, as they were only
selling for 10s 6d and only later at 16s or $1.25) that would have
accounted for many thousands of the `lost` shareholders cash.
Eventually they were being cleared out for a third of the price.
No matter what was going on in the book-cooking department by 1888 the
then called United Sewing Machine Company collapsed.
One point of interest is that Albert Moll lost his first wife and if
it was during this period it could explain a lot.
The
Surplus machines were auctioned off to try and pay some of the debts.
1888
1888 was the year that the notorious Jack the Ripper stalked the
streets of London. Amazing to think that he would have walked near the
Moldacot
business. The newest Fleet Street daily, The Star newspaper was the
first daily tabloid to dramatise the murderous exploits of who they
originally called the Murder Maniac. It was only after the savage
murder of Mary Anne Nicholes that the Name Jack the Ripper was born.
It would be a name that would live on in infamy across the decades.
Thomas O'Connor, editor of The Star, was not interested in sewing
machines, he was interested in mass media sales. The murderous wave
of death by a crazed lunatic was just what he needed. All the daily papers would have been full of
the frenzied
attacks on Whitechapel prostitutes. And so little notice would
have been paid to the demise of the humble Moldacot.
Rumours
A few machines were sold to a South
American/Spanish/Portuguese firm and renamed Bonita,
(beautiful) probably as a novelty more than anything.
These
are
amongst the most sought after models and as rare as hens teeth. I
doubt if they were sold as working machines. All
the Bonita models have thinner name plates as if the old names were
simply ground off and then re-stamped Bonita and re-plated.
Also, all
the Bonita machines were from Germany. Was the German plant getting
some of its money back by selling bankrupt stock?
Years later some more
machines
were discovered in a disused London warehouse which led to
the most amazing story of all.
The
Titanic
The strangest story of all, quite
unlikely but definitely my favourite, is that a stock of Moldacots found stored in a building
about to be demolished several decades later in
1911, were sold to an American
entrepreneur. He then shipped them, a year later, to the States aboard the ill-fated
Titanic only to disappear in a watery grave.
The smallest working lockstitch bobbin and case in
the world. The picture is double size!
The New York based paper
the Sewing World noted; "The machine will not be remembered as
the magnificent, but more likely as the notorious Moldacot".
The
London Times chipped in renaming it "The Mouldy Cat".
The advertising for the
Moldacot was a laugh...
The Moldacot will accomplish
all kinds of work from Muslin to sacking.
The final 1,000 Moldacots were sold off by the
specialists J Theobald & Co of London
The real reason for Moldacots demise was very simple, the machine
did not sew well, it was temperamental and full of design flaws.
This is lucky for collectors as it means that many Moldacots survive
with very little wear and tear.
The Moldacot was rushed onto a waiting market before it was perfected.
All the advertising and huge fanfare was as the old saying goes... the
pride before the fall.
Perhaps the
pressure from the shareholders was so intense they rushed forward with
manufacture and distribution. I remember
researching
Elias Howe and how he struggled for years trying to get his sewing
machine to stitch spending precious months building each machine while
others like Isaac Singer overtook him and stole his market.
Note the improved hand wheel on this model.
While the Moldacot
company was collapsing agents
were still being acquired from London to Wellington in New Zealand.
Today with computers and mobile phones the company would have wound up
its staff around the world in a matter of minutes. I can guess that
some agents were half way around the world by the time they heard the
news that their company had collapsed.
Moldacot
stockists
Whitelock & Son, Draper's
Castle Bay, Somerset.
The flaws that stopped the Moldacots from sewing well were passed on
from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Because several factories were producing the Moldacot they would
have simply have done as instructed and made the machine to exact
specifications. They would not
have improved or modified the machine simply filled the orders.
Theobald's advertised in many local papers,
publications and magazines around
the country to sell off the final Moldacots
And so our poor
Victorian beauty, the perfect pocket portable, bites the dust for one simple reason it won't sew
well.
"I remember my father trying to get it to
work, I watched with
fascination as he attached it to the kitchen table
. He played with the Moldacot trying to get it to sew. It was not long
before he started his cursing!"
On studying the mechanism a few simple improvements would work
wonders, a take up spring to remove slack thread from the shuttle
area, an adjustable shaft to allow individual timing for each machine,
a stronger action on the foot to allow the work to feed better, bobbin
case tension springs and so on. It is easy for a sewing machine
engineer today to say this with a 120years of sewing machine
mechanisms to fall back on.
The Moldacot
may be seen and tested at
F. J. W. Fear's
Willis Street,
Wellington
New Zealand
But the fact remains that
Albert Moll, Cottam and
Rosenthal seemed to stop at the final hurdle and never got
there beautiful Bonita sewing machine quite
right. Were they so pleased with the influx of money they became side
tracked? Did they believe it was finished? I doubt it; after all, if
the machine were easily operated, there would have been public
exhibitions and displays; the public seemed more than willing to invest
in the company.
You can see that the price of the Moldacots
falling, here to 16 shillings down from 50 at its peak and was now
being sold through a jewellers rather than a sewing
machine shop. The price was falling and falling fast.
Problems
Any one who tries to operate a Moldacot soon discovers the
pitfalls; only with careful manipulation can you give the impression
of successful sewing. I know there is the odd one
that does sew but not the majority. This has never put collectors off
in fact it means many Moldacots survive in excellent almost unused
condition.
The Moldacot sewing machines came with a host of
instructions. They were even printed on the tin.
Funnily this makes no odds to
collectors who treasure them for their rarity, quality and workmanship.
The fact that they have not been sewed with means many survive in
great condition unlike many other sewing machines.
At the company headquarters there were specially
trained girls that knew just how to sew with the machine and could
give a good impression of the machine sewing. However, they would not allow
anyone else to have a go.
Were Moll and Cottam removed by greedy
businessmen who only realised too late they were still needed? The
truth is that we will probably never know.
The machine is driven
by a winch handle.
The
needle-bar reciprocates and its upward motion is assisted by a
spring. The presser foot is rocked by a projection on the needle bar
at each extremity of the stroke, so providing feed motion which is
toward the operator. To have the feed in this direction is a matter
of convenience in a small machine
What we do know is Moldacots turn up in an amazing variety of
different boxes, green, red, blue, cardboard and my favourite,
leather. On the side of
the metal tins were adverts for Horrockse's finest cotton.
Needles
were produced by Henry Milward & Son and A
Booker & Co both from Redditch. The machine used
a No1 tapered needle.
There is a brilliant needle
Museum in Redditch and well worth a visit if you are in the area.
Charles Dickens once visited and was impressed to see boys no younger
than six working there!
The famous East End London matchmakers Bryant & May also made the
cardboard boxes with the metal strips on each corner. Bryant & May
still produce matches to this day under far stricter regulations.
Back
in Victorian London factories employed children. The sulphur and
chemicals gave rise to many illnesses. This was the London of Charles
Dickens and Jack the Ripper where a poor child's life was only
measured in their working ability. Dr Bernardo was so stunned on
passing through London that he stayed and helped the poor orphans
rather than go on with his journey.
Bryant & May made some of the rarest
Moldacot cardboard boxes
this isn't one of them it was plain!
Back to the Moldacots.
The machines themselves differ quite considerably, plungers,
hand wheels, closed and open (open being the more popular amongst
collectors), many different stampings on the plates and other parts,
crowns anchors, moons and crosses.
A rare leather Moldacot sewing machine box now
in my collection
The rarest of the Moldacots did not have a hand wheel at
all. Although you have to be careful that someone has not just removed
the hand assembly. You
will note there are no mounting holes on the side of a genuine
non-hand-wheel Moldacot, also a single thread guide wire hole and no
quick release for the bobbin case. This is easy for an expert to see.
Hand
Wheels
After the
first year of manufacturing all Moldacots, both German and British,
had the holes in the side regardless of being supplied with a hand
wheel or not.
The
hand-wheels, in open or closed form, were an optional extra priced at
2/- and 3/-(shillings). The machine can operate without the optional extra
but it was a nice little earner for the company to sell the different
hand wheels after the original purchase.
Some Moldacots survive
complete without the hand-wheel, some early models not even having the
mounting holes for the extra assembly. These are the rarest and most
collectible of all the Moldacots.
You will note,
if you have an early Moldacot, in its original tin, the instructions on
the tin make no mention of the additional hand-wheel, just the plunger
operation.
Also it is almost impossible to cram a Moldacot with a hand
wheel into the tin. It makes me wonder if the tins were made in one go
by another factory
at an earlier date by one manufacturer and the machines subsequently
fitted into them.
Bobbins
From serial No
1 to 11,000 the bobbin case was pushed out of the sewing machine with a pointed object. Tricky
and frustrating as I always drop the bobbin and case. After 11,000 production modifications and the 1886 Isaac Patent allowed the bobbin
case to be removed with
an extra hinged locking bar which was far easier. It saves me bending
over to pick up the bobbin and case as well!
One other
technical point to note is that the British Moldacots had an extra
hole in the side to push in the bobbin winder stem which acted to set the needle to the
correct height. The German ones did not have this very useful feature.
I wonder why?
This fascinating piece of paper tells a real
story. Notice the discount from 50 to 16 shillings to 3/6! A massive
discount to clear stock ASAP!
All the different markings on
the machines may lend some credence to the chairman’s report stating
the original difficulties they had in securing reliable manufacturers.
Were they hoping that the manufactures would sort out the fine-tuning?
Whatever the truth there is no doubt a lot more will come to light
about the machine.
In effect, what do we have? One of the most
sought-after small sewing machines
of all time, made for just a few years and collected by toy and full sized sewing machine
enthusiasts. The Moldacot is also treasured by other collectors as well for its superb
quality and unique
design. It is always a great talking point in any
collection.
Priest &
Holdgate
Sole Agents for
Moldacot sewing machines
South Canterbury
With a little more effort
the Moldacot could have become a fine sewing
machine carried by seamstresses and tailors in their pockets all over
the world. Instead, the Moldacot disappeared for over a century to
reappear as a unique collectors item.
The last we hear of the
Moldacot was down in Australia as late as 1889. An advert appeared in
The Argus looking for agents to handle the shortly arriving Moldacot
Pocket Sewing Machine. Needles to say they never did.
Scam or no scam in 1886 the Moldacot was
greeted by an excited Victorian public as
the perfect pocket
portable.
Values
Made so long
ago and now so rare, Moldacots come up now and again. All depends on
condition. For example one missing a part is practically useless as
you will probably not find a spare part for a machine made around
1886.
All serious
collectors have a Moldacot or two in their collection some like me have
many. They reflect an historic time in our history.
Perfect and
complete Moldacots have fetched great prices with the best fetching
over $1,300 in 2009 so if you see
one going cheap grab it while you can they will only get scarcer,
rarer and more valuable as time goes by. Make sure it is complete it
is almost impossible obtain any spare parts. In March 2012 a Moldacot
was sold for $1600 complete with blue tin but that seems amazingly
high to me.
The most
valuable Moldacot you'll ever find will be in a leather case, Stamped
Patent, London, very low serial number and no hand wheel. plunger
only, no mounting holes for one and no release catch for the bobbin
case. I have only come across two in 30 years of searching.
Well that's it
folks, just about everything I have ever learnt about this wonderful
little marvel. If you have anything to add I would love to hear form
you. alexsussex@aol.com
Elvis has left
the building!
For Sale
I currently have
this original beauty for sale. It is one of my finest Moldacots in
simply stunning condition. Click on picture to see all the extras with
it or mail me for details:
alexsussex@aol.com
I do hope you
enjoyed the Moldacot history, It has taken many years to compile. Do drop me a line
if you have anything to add: alexsussex@aol.com
Alex I Askaroff
News
Flash!
All Alex's books are on
www.crowsbooks.com
Both Sussex Born and Bred, and Corner of the Kingdom
are now
available instantly on Kindle and iPad.
Home
Time for a great story:
Spies &
Spitfires
Alex's stories are now available to keep.
Click on the picture for more information.
Albert Moll had two
sons and a daughter from his first marriage in London. After his first
wife passed away, he remarried.
His son, my Grandfather, was John Samuel
Watson Moll who emigrated to Canada. I recently located my Grandfather's
grave in North Vancouver and found there was not even a grave stone to
mark his burial plot (or his brother's). I had two grave stones made up
and placed. I am interested in finding out more about my English
heritage and the Moldacot Company
Kind regards....
Chris Sihota
c.sihota@hotmail.com
