Newton Wilson's sewing machine enterprise can be documented with some reliability from the late 1850s. Apartments were opened in 1857 at 144, High Holborn, and these remained his London headquarters for the next 20 years or so.
Sewing machine offerings by 1860 appear to centre around USA imports, encompassing the petite "Boudoir", the Grover & Baker and "Cottage" machines.

As was not uncommon at the time, Wilson's advertising campaigns allowed certain economies of truth as to machine origins and/or designs. This in turn led to numerous lawsuits, blighting much of the remainder of his business life.

Despite such setbacks, the acquisition of new substantial manufacturing facilities at Pope Street, Birmingham, in the mid 1860s, seemed to prove a catalyst for the development of his own designs.
The Prince of Wales feathers were now to become a recurrent logo.

The domestic lockstitch market had to be addressed and by 1867 the "Dorcas", a small hand machine based on the Wheeler Wilson rotary hook design, was offered for 4 guineas. This was quickly followed by the "Penelope" priced at 5 guineas.

The introduction of the now famous "Princess of Wales" model was about 1870, following Wilson's relevant 1869 patent.
This serpentine form machine quickly replaced the aforementioned two lockstitch models. Initially the iron casting was fairly simple, but this soon gave way to a far more ornate, heavily textured design.
By the mid 1870s the sewing machine business was at its peak, and the "Princess of Wales" was joined by a zigzag version called "England's Queen". Two delightful chainstitch models, the "Queen o' Scots" and the 1872 patented "Queen Bess" were also offered at this time. Cloned machines after the main USA designs were produced, but they are certain to be of less interest to today's collectors.

It is of note that latter-day - 1880s - POW machines appear bearing only the St. George's Foundry name to them. It has been reasonably suggested that these were produced for a year or two, following Wilson's gradual withdrawal from the industry at that point.

One of Wilson's patents in 1866 introduced the concept of placing teeth on the inside rim of the main flywheel, these then powering the main pinions. This idea was employed in many of his own machines, but is familiar to most of today's collectors as a feature used by manufacturers such as Guhl & Harbeck in their big-selling "Original Express" model.

GD, August 2001.