Autore: toysewingmachine

Introduction

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Aldo Nava toy sewing machine collection .

A brief history about how everything started, about the collector and the collection in itself.

Aldo started collecting toy sewing machines in the 1990´s. He had one in the house for quite a while and when he and his family moved, their toy sewing machine moved with them as a knick-knack. Eventually he became curios about TSMs. However, his collecting bug started long before that with a collection of worldwide steel helmets. He had gathered more than 400 helmets before he ran out of room to store them. The helmets were sold and a new collection began. This one consisted of badges from the kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Italy, the Italian Social Republic, Kaiserlich und Koniglich (Imperial and Royal) Austria, and the United Kingdom and dominions.

Then one fateful day at a flea market in Biella he saw a “Co Milano” toy sewing machine; that day was the end of the badges and the beginning of the toy sewing machine collection. The TSM collection includes only old fashioned, metal machines ; there are no new or plastic machine among them. One foggy day during a snow storm Aldo stopped in a second hand shop and found a silver plated Smith and Edge. He likes all of his toy sewing machines; they are all nice and beloved, but his favorite is the one he will find tomorrow. Most of Aldo´s machines have been found in flea markets in his area of Italy.

In Piedmont there are two sorts of flea markets.The Saturday markets are usually held in the centuries old market area of a town each week. The Saturday market in Torino is called Balon or Strassburg, where Strass mean rags. He visit the Balon market each Saturday from midnight to ten o´clock in the morning . This means ten hours of walking! The Sunday markets, which are held only once or twice a year, are in little town far from Torino and he needs to drive to them. He gets to these Sunday markets at five in the morning and stays for five or six hours. The markets in these little towns are interesting because they are near vey old churches or castles. He says this is a pleasure for the collection, the mind and the stomach. At seven o´clock it is possible to get a breakfast of wine, bread, salami, and cheese.

Aldo lives in Torino, the capital of Piedmont, in Italy.He is retired railway man, is married and has three daughters. Torino is a city with many museums. castles and splendid old palaces. It boasts that it has the best Egyptian museum outside of  Cairo. Aldo´s dream is to become so rich that he will be able to open a sewing machine museum. He says ” A dream is a dream, but it helps to live. Without a dream, a man is dead. “

(Interview from the : ” The Toy Stitcher, Journal of Toy Stitcher International, Inc. ” )

 

The website is dedicated to Aldo Nava & Rita Di Pietro.

 

All pictures, videos, researches and Love by

Francesco Cerutti Nava & Family

 

Casige

Lascia un commento in Casige

The name Casige, was pronounced Kaseege. 

Casige was one of the great German toy makers of the 20th century although the original company had been founded some 50 years earlier. Specializing in piano locks.

The company name comes from a mixture of letters of the founder of the company, Carl Sieper( Carl Sieper of Gevenbroich, Gevelsberg) and his town of Gevelsberg, Westfalen in Germany. Ca–si–ge.

A year after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 Carl Sieper II, the grandson of the original company founder, was asked if he could supply cheap small sewing machines to schools. Carl had already seen the huge Muller toy factory and had a tour. He knew that to expand his company he needed contracts and a lucrative school contract would be a good start into the sewing business.

The first sewing machine to come off their production lines was the model No 1 in 1902 not the 0 which did not appear until around 1910.

Who would have guessed it would have survived two world wars and over 70 years!

Carl must have known that he was going to produce sewing machines before 1902 as it is impossible to set up such a business quickly. To change the factory around with the foundry and machining would have taken months if not years.

Casige produced toys from 1902 right up until 1975.

Originally like I mentioned Casige produced locks hence the company trademark of a great German eagle clasping a key said to be the key to their success!

Casige produced millions of machines in endless patterns and designs. The Sunflower design is one of the prettiest of all their patterns and looks stunning against the black. Based on their model No2 It was first produced around1910 and continued up until the outbreak of WWII.

(Credits to : www.sewalot.com )

Pictures from Nava Collection :

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