Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Yep, that's the type. A google image search for lighter fuel coin op machines should bring some more examples.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Here's a photo I couldn't find before showing an original Penny Patience complete with jackpot mechanism and tappers to propel the pennies rather than captive washers.
Also a couple of photos showing an honour box that I bought at an auction here a couple of years ago and is one of the very few coin machines still in my collection. Not an Australian manufactured machine but with a most interesting inscription dating from 1878 and undoubtedly one of the very, very first coin op machines in use in Australia. The bowling club is still in existence in Melbourne.
Also a couple of photos showing an honour box that I bought at an auction here a couple of years ago and is one of the very few coin machines still in my collection. Not an Australian manufactured machine but with a most interesting inscription dating from 1878 and undoubtedly one of the very, very first coin op machines in use in Australia. The bowling club is still in existence in Melbourne.
Last edited by bob on Mon Jun 18, 2018 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Just a few more Australian manufactured vending machines and some other machines of interest conclude this series of postings of mine.
A very attractive Australian cigarette machine is the Sylent Wurker patented in 1923 by Person Jepson of Melbourne, 13647/23. This was originally in a Florentine Bronze finish rather than the polished brass in the photograph. With a more elaborate mechanism than its predecessors it was marketed in an attractive coloured brochure that I have. I am not aware of another of these machines having survived.
A number of other Australian cigarette machines exist which have no identifying labels. I don't have any patents for their mechanism but would date these from the 20’s or 30’s with the G&D machine being from the '30s or '40s. The black and the black and green machine are slightly different but most likely from the same manufacturers. Quite a few of the attractive Art Deco ones have turned up over the years.
The smallest item in my collection of coin op machines was a machine that vended single razor blades. This was about 9 inches tall and lived in my bathroom. About four of these turned up together at a local shop which dealt in mechanical antiques. Unfortunately it had no markings or clues as to its manufacturer and would, I suspect, not have been manufactured in Australia.
Some other machines were located in the bathrooms of our house. Two of these were personal weighing machines. One was a lovely Art Deco American Pace machine, another was a quite diminutive American Hansen scale.
On a bathroom wall was a Brylcreme hair lotion machine that had an interesting history. The people who had these machines would sell a machine which was already located on a site to two and even three buyers, each buyer under the impression that it was solely their machine. One would take out the money and refill it with product on a Monday, another buyer on a Wednesday and yet another buyer again would do the same on a Friday. Great fun until the scheme came to light and the company promptly disappeared.
Also in my collection, though not Australian was a Wardonia single razor blade machine, a conventional sized British vending machine. This had been brought to Australia by the British collector that I have previously written about, who owned the Rockola Pleasure Island and Clown Magic Ball. I bought this at the auction of his machines before he moved on to the United States.
A stunning quite large vending machine is the Chateau Tanunda match vending machine that Gameswat found. With beautifully lithographed sheet metal still in fabulous condition, it vended its own brand of matches that promoted the sale of Chateau Tanunda wine in pubs.
Another great figural vendor is this match vendor. Its origin is unknown to me.
Vending machines dispensing medication of any sort have been illegal in Victoria and possibly elsewhere in Australia for a long time, but were allowed in New South Wales. Consequently both these machines selling Vincent’s APC, an analgesic, came from New South Wales, where it was lawful to operate them.
An outstanding Australian vending machine is Basil Carlile Low’s Perfume Vendor, covered by Australian patent 4267 of 1921. In a beautifully constructed plywood cabinet styled to look like a soda fountain of the era, it is an incredibly advanced machine for the time. Like a poker machine of the period, and much later machines, the mechanism sits on a rack and when released by a lever on each side slides out the back for service.
Finally another perfume vendor of German origin which has had an attractive head board added in Australia, perhaps inspired by the Australian Midget Match Merchant. One of these in its rather dull original form turned up here at a local auction earlier this year.
A very attractive Australian cigarette machine is the Sylent Wurker patented in 1923 by Person Jepson of Melbourne, 13647/23. This was originally in a Florentine Bronze finish rather than the polished brass in the photograph. With a more elaborate mechanism than its predecessors it was marketed in an attractive coloured brochure that I have. I am not aware of another of these machines having survived.
A number of other Australian cigarette machines exist which have no identifying labels. I don't have any patents for their mechanism but would date these from the 20’s or 30’s with the G&D machine being from the '30s or '40s. The black and the black and green machine are slightly different but most likely from the same manufacturers. Quite a few of the attractive Art Deco ones have turned up over the years.
The smallest item in my collection of coin op machines was a machine that vended single razor blades. This was about 9 inches tall and lived in my bathroom. About four of these turned up together at a local shop which dealt in mechanical antiques. Unfortunately it had no markings or clues as to its manufacturer and would, I suspect, not have been manufactured in Australia.
Some other machines were located in the bathrooms of our house. Two of these were personal weighing machines. One was a lovely Art Deco American Pace machine, another was a quite diminutive American Hansen scale.
On a bathroom wall was a Brylcreme hair lotion machine that had an interesting history. The people who had these machines would sell a machine which was already located on a site to two and even three buyers, each buyer under the impression that it was solely their machine. One would take out the money and refill it with product on a Monday, another buyer on a Wednesday and yet another buyer again would do the same on a Friday. Great fun until the scheme came to light and the company promptly disappeared.
Also in my collection, though not Australian was a Wardonia single razor blade machine, a conventional sized British vending machine. This had been brought to Australia by the British collector that I have previously written about, who owned the Rockola Pleasure Island and Clown Magic Ball. I bought this at the auction of his machines before he moved on to the United States.
A stunning quite large vending machine is the Chateau Tanunda match vending machine that Gameswat found. With beautifully lithographed sheet metal still in fabulous condition, it vended its own brand of matches that promoted the sale of Chateau Tanunda wine in pubs.
Another great figural vendor is this match vendor. Its origin is unknown to me.
Vending machines dispensing medication of any sort have been illegal in Victoria and possibly elsewhere in Australia for a long time, but were allowed in New South Wales. Consequently both these machines selling Vincent’s APC, an analgesic, came from New South Wales, where it was lawful to operate them.
An outstanding Australian vending machine is Basil Carlile Low’s Perfume Vendor, covered by Australian patent 4267 of 1921. In a beautifully constructed plywood cabinet styled to look like a soda fountain of the era, it is an incredibly advanced machine for the time. Like a poker machine of the period, and much later machines, the mechanism sits on a rack and when released by a lever on each side slides out the back for service.
Finally another perfume vendor of German origin which has had an attractive head board added in Australia, perhaps inspired by the Australian Midget Match Merchant. One of these in its rather dull original form turned up here at a local auction earlier this year.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Every time you post it’s like pure gold Bob
You have owned some amazing machines And your research and history of the machines always makes for an interesting read
You have owned some amazing machines And your research and history of the machines always makes for an interesting read
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Bob, from the research I did a long time ago I seem to remember coming to the conclusion that the ACE vending machines were very closely linked to some of the the British YZ machines, so most likely a British export?
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Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Bob seems to have made a small mistake in saying that Match shaped vendor is in Aust, as it quite clearly is the same machine as owned by Coin-op and living in England! Coin-op sent me photos years ago when he found it and either I passed those on to Bob or Coin-op did himself.
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Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
I certainly didn't say that the match shaped vendor was in Australia. All I wrote was "Another great figural vendor is this match vendor. Its origin is unknown to me." Check it out above. I happened to have it on my computer and didn't know where I got from, possibly from Gameswat. It seemed an appropriate companion to his stunning Chateau Tanunda match vendor.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Just realised that I missed out including one machine that I had intended to include. It’s a British not Australian vending machine and one of the very few machines that I still have. It was a present from my wife who has supported my collecting in all the years that I have been engaged in this hobby and was responsible for me buying the Matthewson Yacht Race. So how could I possibly sell this cute little machine?
This is the Monument Cigarette Vending Machine, a vending machine that sold single cigarettes for a penny. Has anybody come across one of these in the UK? Where were they placed? In people’s homes? In hotel rooms? The sign on the acid etched glass had gone, but it was the simplest restoration ever. Just cleaned the glass, painted the whole glass with antique gold lacquer, let it dry and then removed the excess lacquer readily and quickly by scraping the glass with a Stanley blade and it was all done.
This is the Monument Cigarette Vending Machine, a vending machine that sold single cigarettes for a penny. Has anybody come across one of these in the UK? Where were they placed? In people’s homes? In hotel rooms? The sign on the acid etched glass had gone, but it was the simplest restoration ever. Just cleaned the glass, painted the whole glass with antique gold lacquer, let it dry and then removed the excess lacquer readily and quickly by scraping the glass with a Stanley blade and it was all done.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
I had forgotten that the name of the chewing gum sold in these machines in New South Wales was YZ, but remembered only that it was not ACE. Here’s a photo of a rather battered Y-Z machine as used in New South Wales.
In the very early years of my collecting a YZ chewing gum machine appeared in the window of a small antique shop just around the corner from where I lived. The shop was closed for the Christmas holidays and tantalisingly I waited every day for it to reopen. After a couple of weeks they reopened and I went to the shop to buy it and was most disappointed to find that it had been sold to a buyer in Perth, West Australia, a collector of vitreous enamel signs. So it’s probably still out there somewhere for Gameswat to find.
I also had another ACE chewing gum machine. It had been stored outside and although the vitreous enamel cover of the machine was in good condition, the mechanism inside was rusted and corroded.
In the very early years of my collecting a YZ chewing gum machine appeared in the window of a small antique shop just around the corner from where I lived. The shop was closed for the Christmas holidays and tantalisingly I waited every day for it to reopen. After a couple of weeks they reopened and I went to the shop to buy it and was most disappointed to find that it had been sold to a buyer in Perth, West Australia, a collector of vitreous enamel signs. So it’s probably still out there somewhere for Gameswat to find.
I also had another ACE chewing gum machine. It had been stored outside and although the vitreous enamel cover of the machine was in good condition, the mechanism inside was rusted and corroded.
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Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Hey Bob - could you post a bigger, better picture of your fabulous Monument Cigarette Vending Machine for the Museum?
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
I've taken some more photos of the monument cigarette machine. It's a hard machine to photograph.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Today in researching something I am about to write dealing with one of my most unusual restorations, I came across a couple of answers to recent concerns. The book I was looking in is a German book called Automaten Welten. There I came across another maker of a figural match vending machine the existence of which has been written about in this forum previously. It’s a German vending machine made in 1939 by Bruno Hoehne apparatenfabrk in 1939. This is also confirmed by another German book Schoene Alte Automaten. Both books also feature a perfume vending machine made by W Seeger in 1920 which is the same machine as I wrote about above, the Midget Perfume Spray. One of these machines without a marquee was sold in an Australian country town in February of this year and I e-mailed a couple of Australian friends about this at the time:
So I never had the Midget Match Merchant in my collection, but did have the lovely Australian Perfume Fountain, which I neglected to state previously, was also appropriately located in the bathroom of our home for many years.Attached is a photo of a machine similar to the one in the recent auction in Toowomba. It has a lovely hand painted marquee. It was originally offered to me by the Hans the husband of a German lady running an antique doll shop in Parramatta nearly 40 years ago, who was selling a couple of coin op machines. He wanted a price higher than I was prepared to pay for this machine, but I bought a couple of others from them... I saw it again years later (1988) in an antique collectibles shop in Queensland on the Newell Highway. The shop owner said it was not for sale as it was in his personal collection, but took my phone number and said that if he were ever to want to sell it he would let me know immediately. Needless to say, he didn’t, and years later I heard that he had sold it to someone else. C’est la Vie.
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Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Sorry to be a pain Bob, but do you have bigger versions of those images to upload? With the background cropped the image is less than 200px wide so it doesn't really do the machine justice.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Sorry to be obtuse Mr Pennymachines, how do I get "bigger" images?
By the way, I thought I had posted them upright, not on their sides and could not find how to alter.
By the way, I thought I had posted them upright, not on their sides and could not find how to alter.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Here's a photo of a machine I came across in New Zealand in 1993. This was a cast iron Cadbury's vending machine with vitreous enamel plates that had been found bricked in behind a wall in a shop in New Zealand some years before. I don't think the machine is still in New Zealand.
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Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Wow, that's a beauty Bob - nabbed for the Museum.
I've rotated your other pics (and made changes to fix image orientation from iPhones etc.) I'll PM you about image sizes.
I've rotated your other pics (and made changes to fix image orientation from iPhones etc.) I'll PM you about image sizes.
Re: Australian Manufactured Coin Op Machines
Wow Mr Pennymachines ! I've looked in the Museum and what you can do with a photo is fantastic.
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