Four Variations of the Type 40 Deluxe Library table?

One of my favorite machines is my curbside recuse Singer 101. For some strange reason I enjoy it's simplicity. It's a straight ahead only (no reverse) machine and it can be very quick.  During the course of saving the machine, I researched the model the manual, wiring... and the cabinet.

Up until then, all of the Singer DeLuxe Model 40 tables I ran across were different than this one. On this one the leaves are cut at a 50/50 split, and the right leaf drops down while most other type 40's had a 75/25 split where the right leaf stays horizontal... and I didn't know why. This made me dig further, and the more I dug, the stranger it got.

Now, finally, I think I've worked out some of the details. From the information that I have managed to gather the type 40 table began life as a different beast than the ones we are used to seeing. The original 40 appears to have had a flip down foot rest and three different compartments and the leaves were a 50/50 split.

I believe this above ^ is the earliest variation of type 40 table made circa 1920 to appox 1922 - and I have to say approximately because I can only go by what I find when it comes to other type 40's using the date of the -hopefully- original machine. So, my dates may be off a tad, but I think I'm getting close.


Version 2:

The earliest second variation type 40 dates from January of 1923 (casting date of machine) where the foot rest part of the cabinet may have been discontinued leaving a simple crossbar.


Version 3:

Perhaps in a cost saving move (?) this 40 lost a few more details. The three drawer - and I should probably be more specific - one pull out drawer, middle drop-down drawer, and third hinged door with a storage shelf designed to hold the oil can - became simplified to one single drop down.  The other detail lost in this change was the small flat pyramid medallions on the front of the legs. This occurred somewhere between 1923 and at least 1930.



Version 4:

This far-more simplified table had the leaf split change from 50/50 to 75/25 with no drop down - perhaps (?) to increase the size of the area for material to slide across - or maybe to be in line with the rest of Singer's woodworking, but this forth variation becomes the more common type 40 made well into the 1950's.

I realize that this doesn't have anything to do with how a machine works or how well it sews. Perhaps it's just a clutter of information: like knowing that Singer machines with centennial badges were probably not manufactured in 1951... or that the time period for crinkle finish is between 1941 and 1953... or that 66s had a reverse lever from 47-ish to 56...

it's all interesting perhaps, but hardly important to function.

It may help someone date a machine at a glance, and the type 40 cabinet didn't always have a model 101 machine. Early electric versions of the 66, 15, and 128 maybe nestled within. I've seen version 4 tables with 201s, 301s and 15-91s:

And yet... this simple styled Type 40 DeLuxe Library Table was one of the very first cabinets ever designed to house an electric sewing machine to be sold nationwide to the home market.  One might suggest that all electric sewing machine cabinets began here, even though it wasn't Singer that introduced the -very- first electric machine, they were the first 'major' sewing machine company to begin wide distribution of the model 101 in 1920. All the other models took a back seat and it wasn't until late 1921 when exterior motors (not potted) began to appear on other Singer models.

There were a host of other changes that happened to the design of the controls. The earliest models did not have a removable pedal control clamped into the cabinet's knee control bracket - like the later version 4. The electronic bits were mounted in various different ways. The earliest 101 machines had a casting to hold the electronics, and a year or two later the carbon discs became mounted in tubes that hung off the back inside panel... until the ceramic insulator came along... and that was mounted on a side panel - even the easily recognizable vintage Singer six wire junction and plug didn't come into use until at least 1930.

While there were changes going on underneath... and to the drawers, legs, and leaf design... the one thing that appears to have remained constant through the years are the measurements of the table top. I've had the opportunity to examine a version 2 table and compare it with with both a 3 and 4... and found the dimensions to be identical.

Again, this might not mean much... but now I know that I could -probably- unbolt the top of any type 40 and bolt it into the frame of any other variation, and this information might just come in handy the next time I see an ad for a something like this:

Of course knowing this... means I might now have to go and save this one.

I have a bad case of early 40 flu.

If this isn't enough information on identifying early type 40s from later 40s, then let's make things even more murky by mentioning this thing called the 'Combination' table. Supposedly, your machine sat in a rectangular cut-out space in a table top so you could pull it out, set it aside, drop in the inserts and... play cards? I dunno. Seems unlikely in 1920 that you would want the option of moving your machine out of table because 101s were not exactly light weight! The combination table makes a lot more sense in the 50s when you could grab the 301 and set it aside with no issue, and yet I find these photos of what appears to be very early Combination tables with many of the same details as the early type 40 tables.

Do note that combination tables also had slight differences. The earliest ones had a tri-fold hinged wooden inserts that folded up and then down out of the way (model 305 as above) while the combination table model 301 had a simple one-piece insert.

This last one is a true mystery. It has some of the details of a version 2 type 40... but the width of a combo! I'm not saying I'm dead-on right about all these details, but I hope this is a place to begin.  Please write your comments, corrections or references on the underside of a version 1 or 2 and mail them to...

No, just kidding. All comments welcome!

*Addendum April 26, 2018

Right when I thought I'd seen them all... I find this two year old classified ad:

This is certainly curious. It's a Singer model 66 in a type 40, and the table has the 50/50 split with the drop down right leaf. It also has the medallions on the legs... however, there are no cross braces for the legs and it has only the single drop down drawer.  This suggests a missing link model between variation 2 and 3. There may be more of these out there, and if there are... then I my have to make it a variation all its own and bump the number up to 5.

I can imagine a scene where the cabinets are being built and they are changing between designs. It's possible there's going to be some over stock of older parts that need to be used. This example above could be one of the first few variation 3's to have been built... and they just so happened to have a few sets of variation 2 legs left. I'm not saying that I know this is the case... but as more information comes in, I'll update this page.