These were mystery irons for a long time. There are no pictures of any such treadle on Needlebar, ISMACS, or anywhere else that I looked. I found one other person who had a set (partial), but she didn't know what machine they originally came with, either.
These irons were filthy and a good bit rusted when I got them. It was a Craigslist thing, the picture looked a lot better than the real thing. I took it all home anyway.
Interesting side-note, the machine that came with it--just sitting on the top--had been painted entirely black. Everything. Even the boat-shuttle and bobbin were sealed under the slide plate with black paint. It had been purely decorative, apparently. I was able to identify the machine as an early New Home by the mechanism on the bottom, and dutifully shipped it off to Tina Kacanowski, who along with Marion Mikula is researching the history of the New Home company and machines. As it turned out, this was the earliest machine either of them had ever seen. Yeah!
But back to these irons. They're very similar to those that came with the Singer model 12, but they're different. On the 12 irons, the center is a small oval; on these, it's a large rectangle with curved corners.
The flywheel on this one is a whole lot bigger, too, than on the model 12 irons. And overall this is simply a heavier, chunkier set of irons.
After consulting with a bunch of knowledgeable folks, my conclusion is that they're from 1887-89, and originally had a model 13 in them. The model 13 was "semi-industrial," and the large flywheel and heft of these irons is consistent with that. The large central medallion is a very early form, supporting the date.
I took the irons completely apart, de-rusted them, primed with a rust-inhibiting paint, painted gloss black, and then added the gold to the embossed logo on the side. Reassembled, greased, adjusted... and they work like they were new!
Playing on my sense of irony, I built a top for these irons, and put a petite model 128 in them. The LaVincendoria decals are complemented nicely by the red-stained top and the red belt.
Irony is fine... but after looking at this for awhile, and sewing with it, I see that I need to change this. The top and 128 can go on a set of Singer model 12 irons I have, or perhaps a set of Willcox & Gibbs irons I also have... the flywheel in these model 13 irons is too powerful to do justice to a petite 128. I'm thinking either a Singer 15 or a Necchi BU Nova in these irons, to really take advantage of the momentum it can generate.
If you're interested in buying these irons before I do something else with them, please contact McKenna.