This is the eGuide number for the object. You can find it next to selected objects in the exhibition.
This is the location number for the object.
Click here to go to the main menu.
Click here to change languages.
Click here to change the font size and log in.
Click here to show the location of the object.
Zoom with two fingers and rotate images 360° with one finger. Swipe an object to the side to see the next one.
Click here for background information, biographies, legends, etc.
Click here to listen to spoken texts or audio files.
Share an object.
Download as PDF.
Add to saved objects.
 
Sewing machine, Elna, 1940
Ramon Casas Robert
Sewing machine, Elna,
Ramon Casas Robert,
*1520

Sewing machine, Elna,
1940

Ramon Casas Robert
*1520
g1O0
[{"lat":47.382852470230674,"lng":8.535721565641438},{"floor":"floorplan-ug"}]
BF
GF
1
2
2
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Ausstellungsstrasse 60
8031 Zurich
Museum map
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 94
8031 Zurich
Pavillon Le Corbusier
Höschgasse 8
8008 Zürich
Museum map
  • Elna Ramon Casas Robert Sewing machine
  • Elna Ramon Casas Robert Sewing machine
  • Elna Ramon Casas Robert Sewing machine
g1O0
6
7
Listen to the text
j

With the first portable sewing machine, Elna, in the 1940s the machine aesthetic entered modern households. Like the industrial sewing machines, Elna has a free arm that facilitates sewing sleeves or pant legs.

The Spanish precision engineer Ramon Casas Robert (b. 1905) set out to combine the benefits of his mother’s pedal-operated sewing machine with those of the free-arm electric sewing machines used in industry. Fleeing the chaos of the Spanish Civil War, he emigrated to Switzerland in the late thirties and worked in his Geneva hotel room on the prototype for a portable electric sewing machine with a free arm. The Geneva firm Tavaro S.A., a supplier to the armaments industry, was seeking to expand its product range to the civilian sector and acquired Casas’s patents. It was able to produce the sewing machine on the assembly line using the principle of interchangeable parts common in weapons manufacturing. Tavaro brought out the Elna as a world first in 1940, advertising it specifically as a product for the modern housewife. The first portable free-arm sewing machine, it could be stored in its space-saving carrying case and quickly set up when needed. The lid of the case became a sewing table, and a built-in, glare-free light completed the temporary workspace. The sewing machine’s unusual sharp-edged body and color reflect a machine aesthetic. The different functions can be read in the design: a vent shows where the motor housing is located and a plastic belt indicates the position of the drivetrain. The sliding lever for regulating stitch length and the foldout knee control are clearly distinguished from the main body of the machine. The moving parts are chrome-plated and reflect the light, while the body is painted in an industrial green that is easy on the eyes and exudes calm and stability. (Renate Menzi)

Nähmaschine, Elna, 1940
Entwurf: Ramon Casas Robert
Herstellung: Tavaro S.A., Genf, CH
Material/Technik: Aluminiumlegierung, Druckguss, lackiert (Einzelteile)
31 × 17 × 35 cm
Donation: Reta Sonderegger Dudli
Eigentum: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK
j
Literature

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (Hg.), 100 Jahre Schweizer Design, Zürich 2014, S. 147.

Lotte Schilder Bär, «‹Elna› Nähmaschine», in: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (Hg.), Unbekannt – Vertraut. «Anonymes» Design im Schweizer Gebrauchsgerät seit 1920, Reihe Schweizer Design-Pioniere 4, Zürich 1987, S. 66–73.

www.elna.ch

Image credits

Nähmaschine, Elna, 1940, Entwurf: Ramon Casas Robert, Donation: Reta Sonderegger Dudli
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Nähmaschine, Elna, 1940, Entwurf: Ramon Casas Robert, Donation: Reta Sonderegger Dudli
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Titelseite Werbeprospekt, Nähmaschine Elna, The first and only All New sewing machine in 50 years, Auftrag: Elna International Sewing Machine Company Inc. New York, US
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Innenseite Werbeprospekt, Nähmaschine Elna, The first and only All New sewing machine in 50 years, Auftrag: Elna International Sewing Machine Company Inc. New York, US
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK