As soon as I saw the gumball machine with the white globe, I thought it’d look nifty on my windowed front porch. It stood out among the indoor and outdoor furniture set up on the pavement outside the auction house.
The machine brought back memories of sliding a penny into the machine and waiting for the hard and sweet concoction to drop from its glass belly. A few other people stopped to admire it, too, and I’m sure they were recalling those same moments.
I hadn’t seen a gum machine in years. This one has a cast-iron base and the color was more orange than red. The machine had no markings, and with the lamp extended out of its head, it was likely a reproduction, made specifically for someone’s game room. A cord extended from its base. Click on photo above for a full view.
Still enamored – and to make sure it worked – I twisted the lever and it actually turned. I touched the globe, and walked around the machine to view it from all sides. It was in good condition.
I almost ignored the white globe on top. Interestingly, when I pointed out the machine to my auction buddy Janet, she instantly remarked that it was a lamp. We both saw two very different things: her a lamp and me a gumball machine. How different our perceptions are as people.
I didn’t recall seeing a gumball machine at auction before, so once I got home, I Googled to see what I could learn about them. And I found some vintage and antique ones on the web that made the one at auction look crass – and with prices to match.
Gumball vending machines were introduced in this county in 1880 by a man named Thomas Adams who used them to dispense his Tutti Frutti gum at New York subway stations, according to several sites. The machine as we know it today came into being around 1907, according to the sites.
The early machines, obviously, are very collectible. Machines made by Pulver Manufacturing Company seemed especially popular. Among the manufacturers I came across, the Pulver machine was the one that many buyers seemed to want. The first few Google entries for Pulver started with the word “Wanted.” Pulver in 1897 apparently added animated figures to its machines, according to several sites. One seller said the animals could have been the yellow kid, cop and robber, clown or Woody Woodpecker.
One name that kept coming up was the Ford Gum and Machine Co. Ford Mason, who founded the company in 1913, realized that he not only needed to make his own machines but also his own product. And so he did. One site was selling refurbished Ford machines that it said were used from 1960 to 1984 for $149. Here are some other makers on a site selling the machines for up to nearly $5,000.
Hammacher Schlemmer was selling a full-size replica of a Route 66 gas pump as a gumball machine for $2,500. Another company I came across was Columbus, and here and here are two of its early machines.
At the auction, I waited around in the hot sun – slipping back into the auction house now and then to cool myself – for the bidding to start. I was hoping that I would be the only one or that other bidders weren’t that interested in a gumball machine and would back off early in the auction.
No such luck. The bidding started at $5 and I raised my number. Then another man countered at $7.50, and he and I kept at it until I dropped out at his $25. I didn’t think it was worth $30, although I was tempted. He was about to get the machine when someone else outbid him. He finally got it for $40.
Maybe the next gumball machine I come across will be an actual antique and no one else will want it. Well, I can hope at least.
