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This has just gone through auction, has anybody seen one before?

I'm a little dumbfounded Dave that you don't seem to own a copy of Automatic Pleasures by Nic Costa?! This is a great and very early machine pictured in there dating from 1888 called the Corinthian by Electro-Medical Battery Co. The earliest British shock patent is only 1886.

i wondered why it looked familiar.

Must say though, apart from the picture in Costa's book, I've never seen one.
Looks like it came in just above reserve at £1,800 (estimate £2,000 - 3,000).

Dear Daveslot old age has caught up with you like the rest of us. The reason the machine was familiar to you was because the only known one was owned by the late Joe Pettit, someone you introduced me to over 25 years ago. When I inquired if it may be for sale about 10 years ago I was told, 'NO!', but that about 15 years earlier he had turned down £5000 from a collector who gave up collecting and sold his collection nearly 20 years ago. I reproduce the photo I took of Joe's machine about the time I inquired about it. Also a photo taken of a Joseph Mason catalogue that is in an scrap book acquired from the Bolland family. I do not know who owned the original catalogue. The other pictures in it show machines from the 1890s, but the catalogue is undated.

Like most I saw this machine also being near me, not my thing and certainly at the price being listed, but what concerned me was that the electrics inside did not look 19th century, but more 1940s onwards......forgot to capture pictures from catalogue......could be completely wrong of course...

The electrics.