Frister & Rossmann

1903-1907

This is a 'Frister & Rossmann' High Arm Sewing machine.

TS (Transverse Shuttle), Variant 4, Lock-stitch

Manufactured in Germany, between 1903-1907.

Frister & Rossmann was founded in 1864 Berlin, & became the largest manufacturer of sewing machines in Germany, selling throughout Europe, until the start of WW1, in 1914.

Their machines were of the highest quality, & priced accordingly - costing the equivalent of 5 weeks wages for the average British citizen, at the time of purchase. (Yikes).

This machine came to me in pretty good overall condition (The box was in need of more attention than the machine).

I was originally going to strip it all, & repaint, etc, but the decals were in pretty good condition, & they were so pretty, I didn't have the heart to scrape them all off. Instead, I decided to just clean everything thoroughly, touch up what I could, then clear coat it all to protect from further damages. She's very pretty in person.

The box top was seriously stained (burned?) in several areas. Took a LOT of sanding (& some bleaching techniques to get even some of it off.) The base was sanded to smooth out the chips & dings, then all of it was re-stained, then a clear coat protection for all.

Some wooden pieces were fabricated to allow me to rebuild the tool holder underneath the crank wheel. It was broken & missing some pieces. No small trick to replicate those tiny bits with nothing but a Chop Saw. : )

This machine sold on Ebay in January of 2020.