Fine early model steam engine with feed pump

A finely made model stationary engine, engraved and dated on the baseplate "Wm Haines Maker 1858". In the same year Brunel's "Great Eastern" was launched and the US President James Buchanan spoke to Queen Victoria at the inauguration of the Transtlantic telegraph!

Beautifully proportioned, with the one-piece crank, turned from the solid, supported in a pair of elegantly supported bearings. Eccentric straps and sheaves are to prototypical pattern, the fish-belly connecting finely turned

Fit and finish is to an exceptionally high standard - silky smooth to turn over, the engine will run with no pressure at all showing on the workshop air line regulator - disconnecting the pipe and blowing into it proved that the engine will, indeed, run on "a breath of air" very steadily.

There's a video of it running here, taken shortly before it was spirited away home to sit on a sideboard (where it delights Mrs P).