The Soccer by Jentzsch and Meerz

[gameswat]

Nice, have never seen the mech for this Brenner Soccer before and quite complex. A lot of work to restore but well worth the effort for such a rare and interesting machine.

[arrgee]

It's looking a lot worse sine I last peeped at it about 5 years ago

...................send it to Perth Jingle

[john t peterson]

[sweetmeats]

The soccer machine recently sold in the EH auction was last sold at Christies South Kensington "lost street museum" sale October 1997 it sold with premium for £1870 so not so dear 18 years later . I also have a soccer machine, there are two small screw holes in the top suggesting it may once have had a top marque . I also have rare football wall machine [ see picture] it must one of the hardest games to win your coin back on in all the years I have owned I have NEVER won on it! It was patented in 1915 No 23,851 by G. Baker of Sheffield ,Automatic machine maker. Photos to follow.

[treefrog]

If you look closely at the Christies machine, the woodgrain, base style and marks you will see they are different machines.....Your other football machine is certainly unusual, the spandrels almost look french in style

[gameswat]

Yes, just two screw holes in the roof of my Soccer, no peg holes like the Clowns. Is the Soccer shown yours Sweatmeats?

[sweetmeats]

To follow up on posts from treefrog and gameswot, the picture posted is my machine and not the one from the Christies sale of 1997 which I now add a picture from the cat. It was in black and white. I was at the sale and spoke to the buyer after who bought it as he was a football fan rather than a slot collector and said that he would have it polished and the missing plate around the trigger made. I have not seen him or the machine since, but feel sure it is the same machine. If not, it is so similar as to support my comments on price. Gameswat, your machine, mine and the one in Lemaitre's book all seem to be identical. I copied the instructions from the Lemaitre book which I have added since the picture was taken. I would be interested to know of any other similar machines in other collections.

[aristomatic]

I think even I would lay a few quid that they are indeed the same cabinet.

[gameswat]

A local friend just came through with all the info I needed to finish up my repro marquee! His timing was impeccable to say the least as I was just hours away from getting back onto it as the last part to finish the machine off. Here's the eBay link to this German version Allwin Reserve - named Climax for the home market: http://www.ebay.de/itm/altes-kugelschle ... 7675.l2557

Really was invaluable to find these clear multi-angle photos help me fill in the detail blanks. Only difference with this example is the pointy middle section instead of rounded as shown in the adverts I'd found. And shows a bracket on the rear. Though for this to match up with the holes in my cabinet roof it will mean moving the marquee forward 3/4", but it should sit back. According to the hole positions they are directly under where the marquee should sit. Looking side on the marquee will almost always line up with the front door wood. Before seeing these photos I had assumed they'd drilled holes down through the marquee and ran long screws. But for other original marquees I've had they always choose to screw through the thinnest section and use the shortest screws possible. Will need to think about this and decide which way to go? I try to always use the original screw or bolts holes when replacing anything.

[gameswat]

Finally finished - phew. Stained and repainted the damn marquee at least 5 times until I could reasonably match the milky looking lacquer of the cabinet. I don't wear a watch but I'm guessing easily 25 hours into just the marquee alone, with research, making a paper pattern, selecting wood, about 10 hours of carving, staining and a lot of paint experimentation! One of the most difficult colour/paint matching jobs to date. But happy I persevered. The operator at some point painted red stain or paint into the fluting beside the door and around all the edges of the case which has worn away to some extent. That's why I added some red staining to the centre oval of my repro marquee and to a few other spots. There was a lot of staining then rubbing back over and over again to try and replicate the patina and randomness of age.

The mech cleaned up well. The payout cup was crushed and I had to unsolder it from the frame and carefully panel beat it back into shape which was about 4 hours. I managed to find a great spray can product called Dupli-Color Metalcast (Yellow Anodised #MC202) to replicate the gold lacquer used on many of the mech castings and brass sheet parts. Pretty much every J&M machines uses this gold lacquer, not on everything, some of the parts were just clear coated or not at all. Will also post this to resources. Careful cleaning really spruced up the cloth backing.

As for my dilemma about fixing the marquee......looking at the German eBay Climax I noticed the wood was thinner than I'd originally guessed, so that gave me a little more room to play once the bracket was added to the back. I managed to fit the marquee using both original lid screw holes and it sits just slightly back from the edge of the lid. I'm guessing that when these machines were shipped over from Germany they didn't have the maquee fitted yet to save space and possible damage. These were most probably left to the importer to drill and attach and whoever did this one sat it slightly forward than normally seen. Really doesn't appear out of place as I'd first imagined it would.

[bryans fan]

EXCEPTIONAL!!!

[wembleylion]

WOW! Gameswat, your workmanship is absolutely brilliant.
John

[arrgee]

As always Gameswat.............. absolute pure craftsmanship, very well done.

[john t peterson]

Simply Stunning!!

J Peterson

[gameswat]

Geez you guys are hard to impress.......but I'll take those comments as a compliment. cheers

[pennymachines]

It's good for another 100 years!
Here's a different version of the Fussballspieler, with gravity-fed 10 Pfennig auto payout.
This one was made by West & Ludwig (see The Berlin Connection).

[gameswat]

I guess I just stumbled onto the reason this circa 1928 J&M export Soccer is so rare in the UK. I was clearing out some old coin-op paperwork to sell and came across a mystery box? Turned out to be a huge collection of "The Coin Slot" magazines from the '70s and '80s that I'd completely forgotten I ever had! Decided to read through them again and amazing all the new info I've found. Was over 10 years ago I last read them. Anyway I promptly found a story by Nic Costa with this information relating to the Jentzsch & Meerz agency in the UK.

From a Nov 1982 article titled "Scott Adickes and Company Ltd."

The secret of their success lay in the adept manner in which they had secured a number of key distributorships. Ad Adickes' German connections had enabled him to acquire the much vaunted agency for that most famous of German companies, Jentzsch & Meerz of Leipzig. The agency had long been held by another expatriate German, Ernest Haas. By the late '20s, Hass was a very sick man. Because of this, his business suffered and the sale of J&M machines in England slumped. Adickes seized upon the opportunity this offered and began importing machines direct from Germany for sale in England, undercutting Haas' prices in the process. Soon the German manufacturers could not help but notice that they were selling more machines through this 'upstart' than through their recognised agent. By the time of Haas' death in 1933, Adickes had been awarded the agency.