This wheel showed up on craigslist, within a reasonable driving distance and in my price range. So I got it.
The seller had bought the wheel used many years previously. She was upgrading to a more modern wheel from a currently active manufacturer and no longer wanted or need this one. She knew nothing more about the wheel beyond "it works". I don't remember if there was a driveband on it or not, but since most of the time I end up needing to replace the driveband anyway, that didn't bother me.
I had no idea what the wheel was, so I asked around.
Someone on Ravelry found its twin: "See SPIN-OFF Magazine Winter 1991 Edition, Page 79, “Spinning Wheel Treasures From Europe Part 1- Horizontal Wheels” by Sharon Hudgins. The wheel is identified as a Russian (Soviet Union at that time) made wheel she purchased in 1984 in Prague, Czechoslovakia."
A few other people soon posted on Ravelry, showing photos of wheels that were very similar. The author who wrote the Spin-Off article had purchased her wheel in a state-run crafts store that was meant to show off traditional craftsmanship from Russia, I believe. And given that some other people have similar wheels, there were apparently a lot of them for sale throughout the former USSR and Eastern Bloc countries.
Fun! So apparently the US isn't the only country that was having a fad for reproduction spinning wheels in the 1970s and 1980s.
This is a very silly wheel but I adore it. What's silly about it?
It came with four bobbins. But only one of them works with the wheel. The other three are too big. My guess is that a previous owner had some extra bobbins made but the dimensions weren't quite right. Metric vs US? Differences in shrink/swell of American vs Czech/USSR wood? A bit of mis-measurement and/or lack of precision when they were commissioned? No idea!
The bobbin comes off by unscrewing the metal shaft from the flyer. I don't think I've ever seen that kind of thing in any other spinning wheel, not that I've seen a lot of spinning wheels. However, now that I know the other bobbins won't fit, I don't bother changing it out. I just unwind the spun yarn onto a storage bobbin and go from there, like I do with other wheels that have just one bobbin and/or that have bobbins which are a pain to change out.
The orifice hook is a handmade thing that was undoubtedly added after. Since most older wheels don't have orifice hooks at all, this isn't a problem. There's a pretty handmade clay bead that serves as the handle.
The treadle is a narrow board, narrower than many people's feet. It works perfectly well, though.
The distaff is a different wood from the rest of the wheel. And as with my other reproduction wheel, it's not that stable and thus not that useful. I don't use it.
The wheel isn't particularly fast -- I think it's around 1:10 or so -- but there's something about it that keeps me coming back to spin on it for just a little bit longer.
I have no idea if this was made to be a spinning wheel or just a decorative piece. There are a lot of wheels from that era that were made to be decorative. Some aren't able to spin. But some, especially those that were copied from extant pieces, actually do spin, often quite reasonably well. This one falls into the functional category, whether accidentally or on purpose.
I don't use it often, but it's always a lot of fun whenever I do use it.
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