Objects

Tailoring is one of those professions which, according to popular belief, was most often done by Jews. Indeed, many Jews were tailors and many Jewish women worked as seamstresses. We are in a small tailor's workshop where at least four tailors or seamstresses worked. The workshop is somewhere in the attic, as evidenced by the mansard windows in the roof; in winter it was heated by two goat-type cookers. On the table top there are large sewing shears, pieces of colourful material; there are also sewing dummies, two on the left, one on the right. Most importantly, however, are four sewing machines set in wooden tops with metal legs – these are pedal sewing machines, popular since the mid-19th century and manufactured in factories of the American company I.M. Singer & Company scattered around the world. In 1851, Isaac Merrit Singer patented a functional and inexpensive sewing machine. By the beginning of the 20th century, sales of Singer machines had already reached one and a half million a year, accounting for 90 percent of world’s production. It could be bought all over the world, and the Russian Empire was one of the largest markets.

See also another version of this stage design, MPOLIN-M1149.

Renata Piątkowska