A delightful, elegant, high-quality plain-turning precision lathe circa 1850 to 1980. With a centre height of perhaps 5 inches and a 41-inch bed that allows around 24 inches to be held between centres, its design the Overton is typical of the period. Carried on a mahogany frame with the obligatory tool tray at the rear, the bed consists of two strips of rectangular section steel separated by a gap though which the headstock, tool rest and tailstock clamping screws pass. With its light built and the forward and rear-facing faces flat, the headstock could be from almost any competing maker of the time - though in this case, instead of a single front bearing and a hardened point to support the rear of the spindle, two bearings are used. Spindle end thrust is taken in a way common to much heavier lathes of the time, with the thrust plate supported on two finely-turned pillars outboard of the left-hand bearing. Drive is by a foot treadle, through a rather too-light flywheel that carries four grooves on its periphery for slower speeds and one of much smaller diameter for a single high speed. The bronze headstock pulley, complete with four circles of indexing holes drilled into its front face, carries five grooves to take what would have been called at the time "cat-gut" rope.
Slightly unusual is a compound rest assembly - likely to have been adapted from one used on an ornamental turning lathe - and carried on what amounts to a heavy-duty hand-rest base casting. Not the most rigid of designs for general work, but it does allow the whole unit to be swivelled around to suit the job at hand. To add flexibility of use (and assembly) the top and cross slides are mounted on a rotating base - with each having square-section ways and the long slide engraved with inch ruler graduations.
This lathe is unusual in that it has been identified - when so many from its era are bereft of any maker's name or insignia. The reason for this may have been because the maker was content to sell batches batch of lathes to a large distributor, or dealer, on the understanding that they could be "re-branded" as necessary. An examination of almost any contemporary hard-bound sales catalogue - these were a popular issue at the time - have illustrations where the maker's name has been crudely erased and the dealer's name drawn in -  and the machine listed with a 'generic' name such as Albion, Brandon, Empire, Champion, Superb, Manchester, etc. The large and very successful British dealers Selson Engineering were particularly prolific in the use of this dodge, though they did at least have the honesty to put the fake names in parenthesis. A further problem with the identification of older lathes is that some makers often affixed a fine badge in bronze and, as these make tempting souvenirs, they might well have been removed.
Today, few changes have occurred, with many Taiwanese, Korean and Chinese-made machines given Western names. Beginning in the 1970s, some Taiwanese makers even included in their export shipments a selection of stick-on plates proclaiming the 'maker' to be Lux-Cut', Peerless, "Visa", "Husky" and "Carolina", etc.