Seidel & Naumann 1895(?) Transverse Shuttle machine

 Chance online find here, which I thought was a pretty machine in fair order for not much money.

On arrival it didn't disappoint. Arrived undamaged. Always a positive! It turned over freely, looked complete & has a very nice bentwood case, with a key: ) Has some Mother of  Pearl inlaid flowers on the table & shiny Nickel Plated brightwork.

The slide plates are free, it turns over freely with a little oil in the right places. Not tried stitching yet, but I'm confident it will when I do: )

Only potential snag is that it uses 13x1 needles & they are long out of production. Happily, when I have a close look in the Accessory Box I find 15 needles which look unused: )

I'm just checking online to confirm. Victorian Sweatshop Forum is where I usually start.

In this pic you can clearly see the 100 stamp & this relates to the group of 10 needles above. They are long needles, slightly over 44mm on my (not super accurate) Vernier calipers, but I'm pretty sure they are 13x1 or equivalent. They are not Singers, but look like Speedy, out of the packet it came with. Says Made in Belgium on the packet but internet searches only bring up the modern Speedy Awl needles...

Of the group of 5 on the left, the 4 right are stamped Schmetz 90.  Hard to see with the naked eye, but there. These are 1mm less than the others, but I'm assuming they will fit, since they were with the machine.

Having a closer look at it, it's in nice mechanical order. It's basically a High Arm Singer 12K clone but with small details that make much more user friendly. Like tension release for example. A better bobbin winder that works efficiently. Definitely better engineered than the Singer & trying some stitching yesterday for the first time it did a pretty nice stitch from the off: )

Example here:

Needs some slight adjustment to upper tension here, but the bobbin ran out after a short while & I used the Bobbin Winder for the first time. No problems there either. 

It needs some tension adjustment on the tiniest stitches, but it just needs getting used to: ) The stitch adjustment mechanism was a little stiff to start with but it's freed up nicely now.

I've only got 3 bobbins but that's no big deal. Shuttle is fine, handcrank is smooth & it just feels 'Quality'. It only came with one foot & no attachments. But the needles more than make up for that!

I'm very pleased with it actually. Mechanically it's great for 125years plus, just needs some TLC on the woodwork & not much of that! It's been really well looked after, & having some spare needles is a real bonus; ) Only ones I found online were Singer 13x1 on Etsy. £59 for 7!  Greedy Dealers prices, but that's what you get online these days. I couldn't find any of the Schmetz 90s...

There's a little wear to the Mother of Pearl decals, but I think they are lovely & well worth preserving. It's a pretty machine & ready to work right now: )