Expert: Irene Schwall - 7/19/2008

Question
QUESTION: i have a sweing machine from my childhood.  i thought it can in a case but... it is blue with a plastic platform, turn handle on the right. with the name of marx on the front.  i have no idea when i got this.  i thought it had been destroyed years ago.  my mother recently passed and in the course of going thr the attic we found it.  any info would be appreciated

ANSWER: Hello Pamela,
I am sorry but I have never heard of a toy or miniature sewing machine called "Marx".
Are you able to send me photographs of your machine?  If so, I could send them along to other toy sewing machine collectors with the hope of identification. Please also include information on all other lettering or markings on the machine.
Thanks.
Irene

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Here is a photo

Answer
Hello Pamela,
I forwarded your query and photo on to another collector and he came back with the following:

Marx -- Louis Marx founded his own toy firm, Louis Marx & Company, in New York City in 1921 after an argument with his employer, "Toy King" Ferdinand Strauss. When Strauss sold his business the following year, Marx bought some of the molds. The Marx firm mass-produced almost every kind of toy except dolls, selling its inexpensive toys in variety stores and by mail. Many products were made of lithographed tinplate. Among its best-known items are various windup toys, including an elaborate scene of mice performing around a piano (the Marx Merrymakers). trains, planes, and screen and comic-strip characters. After World War II, Marx produced plastic toys and became the largest toy manufacturer in the world. The company was sold to DunbeeCombex-Marx, Europe's largest toy manufacturer, in 1976. Marx used "Marx," "Marline," "Joy Line," and "Lumar" as trade names.

I'm not positive that the MARX on your machine relates to this firm but perhaps it is a good start. I will keep your file open and pass the query on in the hopes of a positive ID of the actual machine.
Best,
Irene