A lovely keepsake

My brother came to dinner yesterday evening and brought with him this lovely old Singer sewing machine. Please forgive the dust - it has been in his attic for a long while and I'm not going to clean it until I have the chance to do it properly.

From the serial number, it appears to be dated around 1870. My sister-in-law (my brother's wife) bought it some years ago, in order to sell it again, but liked it so much that she kept it. This type of machine was known as the "fiddle base" because as you can see, the base is fiddle-shaped.

Sadly my sister-in-law died, way too early, five years ago, so this is a lovely memento for me to keep in my sewing room (along with my other lovely old Singer which I blipped some time ago).

I shall Blip this again when it's all clean and sparkly and working again (hopefully).