Helvetia

I had been wanting a red version of this machine, ever since I started collecting vintage machines. They turn up from time to time, but I had my heart set on a red one, with nice paintwork. I had heard these are not a particularly good machine to use. Therefore, I decided early on that I would only get one. They came in three colours, cream, dark green and a deep red. So I was waiting for a red to appear. This one was listed on FB marketplace and reduced from $60 to $20, so I decided to take a chance on it, even though it looked very dusty in the photos, I was hopeful that the case had protected it from corrosion. I could see it had no table and was missing any accessories, still the price was right.

All the photos of the machine were from the front, so it was pot luck. I could see that the white pedal was broken and I had seen these white ones broken in the past. I did not mind, as the Helvetia decal looked good and I was hoping that the other imperfections to the paint were only superficial and hopefully just dirt. The chrome areas, such as the presser foot looked shiny and not rusty. I was hopeful. Even if I could never get it to work, I would have one example of this machine.

The instruction manual for the machine I have had for quite a while, waiting for the day that I added this machine to my collection. For a free copy of this manual you can downloaded it from my google drive in pdf format from here.

Not my machines, but examples of the three colours.