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By Alex I Askaroff

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The German company that made Vesta was called LOD, short for L.O. Dietrich, one of the oldest German sewing machine companies.

The Vesta mark went onto their machines in the late Victorian period and lasted up until the Second World War when the company became involved in arms manufacture. The factory was finally closed by the Russians around 1946.

Originally LOD was formed around 1869, by 1871 they were well established in Altenburg, Germany. For the first 20 years the machines were basically Singer copies with a big S as one of their badge marks and sold under the Dietrich, LOD banner.

The company was a mixture of three giants in the German sewing machine industry all eventually selling machines under their own names. They were L O Dietrich, G Winselmann, of the Titan mark, and H Kohler.

The three men had all worked together at the giant Clemens Muller Sewing Machine Factory in Dresden. It was there that they came up with the idea of their own business. It did not last long as by 1880 all three men had parted and had their own businesses making machines.

By 1871 The Company had a vast factory employing hundreds of workers.

The name Vesta comes from the Roman goddess of fire and the hearth, which is perfect for a machine that was forged from the great German furnaces. As a very important Roman Goddess her prayers were uttered daily in worship and of course we have all heard of the Vestal Virgins, but I digress.

There were originally two sizes of Vesta and many other models from LOD such as the Universal No 1 with its lovely open cut gears and lightweight, The Family A and Family B. The Saxonia range which included two smaller machines and a medium semi-industrial model. As well as the vibrating shuttle models mentioned they also produced oscillating bobbin machines model E, F and G with a barrel or cylindrical arm. Then there were central bobbin machines such as the model Ce and Cf. All were available with a ball-bearing treadle base.

The machines were guaranteed for five years.

 The machines became an instant success in England and soon offices were opened in London at 16 South Street, Finsbury.

This German Vesta machine was sold to shops like Collier & Sons of Clapham road South West London. Colliers were a large ironmongers that sold just about everything you could think of. They were also sold through other retailers such as J. D. Williams & Co Ltd, Manchester and Sewing Machine Supplies of Aldergate Street London.

If you look carefully at your machine you may have a Winselmann model. You may see the Titan mark on several pieces of the machine if you have an early Winselmann model.

There was a beautiful mother of pearl inlay fiddlebase model, basically a smaller 3/4 size copy of the Singer New Family transverse shuttle that was around in the 1880's. 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.

This beautiful small Titan fiddlebase, so similar to many Vesta machines, was made by Gustav Winselmann, also in Altenburg, Germany. The machine is marked with the makers details stamped on the slide plate and also Made in Saxony is on the machine (an old reference to 19^th century Germany). The badge has the great Titan standing over the factory holding a sewing machine. The case has the gold awards that this small machine had won during its impressive reign at Milano in Italy, Bremen, Bodenbach and Leipzig.

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