[marvymelvin]

Adam said "Brad, I have to differ with you on your conclusion as to the vintage of the metal machines. The Ideal vendor, the two-slot model with the inset frontpiece and an all-metal design, carries a patent date of 4-21-25 on its front. I do not think the company would design and patent an item then not use it for five years. Also, you cannot take a 1923 document and assume that nothing changed until 1930 or later based on it. What we need are more circulars like Fred's, from later years. Finally, and this is a nit, the flyer Fred posted states that the Ideal is finished in mahogany, not oak."

Hey no worries Adam. Here are a few of my own ramblings.

One thing we do know for sure is that the wooden machines came before metal ones.

There are many metal machines, not much different than the early ones you speak of, currently being described by antique dealers as far older than they are, and otherwise misrepresented as early 1920's and it just isn't true for most of them. ESCO also had a propensity to make a vending machine and then continue use and manufacture the same exact machine for many years.

You see how it gets dicey. Lets say you have a card vending machine made and patented in 1925. It works well and is a workhorse, so they make them year after year for maybe 15-20 years. Without a date of manufacture I can tell you that every collector, auctioneer, antique dealer, buyer, seller, appraiser etc will labeled it as "Early 1920's." When in fact it could be late 20's and possibly all the way to mid to late 40's.

And lastly, if steel machines were made in the 1920's, then when in the 20's?

Someone might ask "is it from the 20's or is it from the 30's?" Well, mathematically speaking that is a 20 year span from New Years Day 1920 to New Years eve 1939. There very well may have been a metal cased vendor in the 1920's, but most likely very late, and then used and manufactured similarly unchanged well into to the 30's and 40's before being replaced.

Just as an FYI, using old photos to identify the age of these machines is a lesson in futility. Many machines from many eras have been on location vending cards forever. I Just bought a post card out of an old 1950's Exhibit Supply machine at a bus station. They were built well.

Oh and in response to your "nit" I said and I quote,

"...machines made by Exhibit Supply in the 1920's are almost always oak, especially the countertop ones..." I didn't say they were "always" oak, I said almost always.

In a past life I was a very motivated collector of coin-operated devices, jukeboxes, pinballs, and penny arcade machines of every size and purpose. Exhibit Supply was manufacturer of many types of amusements in addition to card vendors. The tall wooden vendors with the large windows displaying the cards with multiple coin slides were made of many different kinds of wood including Oak. So not always oak but many countertop machines, fancy floor models and countertop strength testers, crane digger machines, and floor model 3D viewers I have owned have been oak, and not just regular oak as many were also quartersawn/tiger oak.

As for oak or mahogany the smaller "Ideal" vendor was a lower quality machine vs. the Oak Model "G" which is also pictured in the brochure, and is also the one I own and pictured (without the optional top marquee). Fancy Oak in fancy Hotels and upper class establishments, and lesser materials and simpler manufacture in lesser establishments and speakeasy's.

As for the material posted in Fred's original post, it would have all (or most if not all) come along in a large envelope with delivery of my model G, or the Ideal vendor, or any other machine in the brochure that vended cards. Pretty Neat stuff.