Sweetmeat & Nestlé's vendors

[treefrog]

Chiswick Auctions today, two cast iron vendors went under the hammer.....anyone know what they fetched?

The first larger one looked from the pictures in great condition, probably would go through the floor of my house though..

[ilovemyjukebox]

The Nestle went for £2500 plus commission and the Sweetmeats went for £7000 plus commission.
Both went to a very prominent collector.

Dave

[daveslot]

I was on the phone for these, but got blown away the Nestles looked to be in fresh paint, one of the cash doors was cracked and the artwork looked modern, but very rare. The sweetmeats was fantastic and even rarer, probably worth the price of 7k plus 24% commission, an extra 3% if you bid online, and 5% extra if you use plastic, oh and £5 per lot per day storage if you dont pick up by the next day.

[treefrog]

Blew the estimated price away... I was considering going down there, but somehow felt they would fetch money.... Suspect both have been repainted after all these years but still, as I said, must be the ultimate vendors, well British ones anyway.....

[JC]

The buyer must be doing cartwheels at this moment - the Sweetmeats in particular sold for considerably less than I expected, even taking into account the rip-off commission.

Both went to a very prominent collector.

If it's who I think it is, I shall hopefully get to see them in the next couple of weeks.

[ilovemyjukebox]

Both had been re-painted. The Nestle was missing a couple of enamels and apart from the damage to one of the doors it appeared to be in fine feltle.

The Sweetmeats was a better restoration. It had new glass too. Signs looked original. Missing seven enamels. Had fun trying to work out access to the cashboxes. No keys for either machine.

I had eyes for the Nestle and knew I wouldn't have got close to the Sweetmeat. They both went to a good home and are unlikely to be put to the market again.

There were five telephone bidders and internet bidders too.

Absoutely right about the 24% auctioneers cut.

Dave

[pennymachines]

Fantastic vendors! Compare and contrast with the double Nestle on a British Automatics Company stand that went for £5000 plus commission at Great Central Railwayana Ltd. in 2008. The later aluminium example, bottom, I just found on my hard drive. We like pictures, don't we?

[badpenny]

.........................If it's who I think it is, I shall hopefully get to see them in the next couple of weeks.

Did Sharon buy them then?

As for the auctioneers chunk , if that's how much they take when they want to remain friends with you so you'll come back again, how much do they take when they don't sell you anything and don't care about you?

[daveslot]

as for the auction, when i viewed monday, they could not tell me anything about them or even if they had keys or not, took me 30 mins to register and they needed photo i.d. and its impossible to park anywhere near, i also forgot about the low emission zone, seems motorhomes are subject to a £500 daily fine, must check if i qualify

[ilovemyjukebox]

The auction house has apparently had them for more than a month.

The Nestle machine wasn't sporting the original glass either.

Wasn't a completely wasted journey for me. Saw some stars from daytime TV. The auctioneer is frequently on these antique shows.

Dave

[slotalot]

I have had this photo on my hard drive for a long long time. Can't ant remember where it came from but I wonder if these machines managed to dodge the scrap man???

[pennymachines]

Great picture Slotalot, but I doubt any of them escaped the melting pot.
I notice they're on the BAC round columns, like the one I posted earlier. At the time I was thinking it was a mismatch of stand and machine, but of course, Nestle vendors were made by BAC.

BAC contract to supply and maintain Nestle and other vending machines to the Midland and North East Railway Companies (superseding prior agreements between said rail co. and the Sweetmeat Automatic Delivery Company, Ltd.).

[pennymachines]

More Nestle vendors trawled from the hard drive.

[badpenny]

Stuart it appears your photo may have come from Here

Although it is clearly pre 1950s.

[pennymachines]

I've done a bit of research into the Sweetmeat Automatic Delivery Co., Ltd. on behalf of the lucky buyer of that vendor. This sweet tin, that was for sale on ebay, would presumably have been dispensed from such a vendor. A purpose-made embossed, silvered tin - how far we've come from the age of elegance. It's marked with the original address of the company and shows the stylish typeface they were using at the time:

Sweetmeat Automatic Delivery Co. Limited
52, Southwark Street
London. S.E.

sweetmeatco.jpg (18.26 KiB) Viewed 3928 times

The company moved their offices to 14 Appold Street, London around 1904 before changing their name to the British Automatic Co. Ltd. in 1909. They also owned the chocolate factory of Reeves Ltd. in Barrowfield Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow (pictured below).

A short résumé of the company can be found on the excellent Mal's Machine Tokens website (I'll put a link in the Archive).

BRITISH AUTOMATIC CO. LTD.

25 Nov 1887
25389
7 Hanover Square, London W1R OPS
Automatic machines
History: founded in 1886 by Hore & Frampton who installed wooden automatic machine 'chocolate boxes' on railway stations in and around London with 452 installed in the first 9 months. Incorporated in 1887 as Sweetmeat Automatic Delivery Co Ltd. By 1903 the chairman was George A Touche, founder of the accounting firm of the same name. Moved offices from 52 Southwark Street, London to 14 Appold Street, London around 1904, and also owned chocolate factory of Reeves Ltd in Barrowfield Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Name changed to above in 1909 and was taken over by Associated Automatic Machine Corporation Ltd in 1929 which subsequently centred its activities in Appold Street. By late 1920s began to install weighing machines in various sites eg chemists, chain stores etc .............

[coppinpr]

Found this photo of vendors outside a shop in Freshwater IOW. Also another booze vendor, the legality of which escapes me. The man in the first photo is demonstrating how to hide behind an ice cream cone

[arrgee]

The man in the first photo is demonstrating how to hide behind an ice cream cone

I think he is throwing up after eating such a cone.

[slotalot]

I think they must have been very popular,
as this lady seems to be enjoying hers,
I wonder how big the flakes are???

[treefrog]

Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

I know no-one likes to talk prices on machines, but has anyone any idea what these aluminium Nestle vendors go for? Not that I have seen many for sale over the years, truth is I have no idea if we're talking - £250 or £1000... I appreciate it depends if complete and not damaged.

[bryans fan]

As you say they don't come up very often, so I think it is very hard to speculate on the price. I cannot recall seeing one.