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Griswold Red Star (Peanut)

Griswold Mfg. Co., Rock Island, IL (for the Red Star Sanitary Vending Machine Co. of Davenport, IA), c. 1914, 20". For years and years and years I wanted a nice Griswold and never had the opportunity to buy one at a reasonable price. A lot of my friends did---multiple times, for some of them---but it was a model that eluded me. My interest eventually waned to the point that I still liked them and remained interested, but I didn't long for one the way I had earlier. Maybe one just wasn't in the cards for me, ya know? Then this one was offered to me in the spring of 2019, and when I saw it I was glad I'd waited even though the waiting had not been exactly voluntary.

Four Griswold bulk vending models are listed in Silent Salesmen Too (page 68): The "Griswold," the Red Star, the Red Cross, and another "Griswold" that's a variation of the Red Cross. The first "Griswold" is the most common of the four, having a round base and simple front with a short raised coin entry and a circular knob to dispense the product after inserting the coin. I say "most common" but it's not common, as evidenced by all those unsuccessful years of looking for a "nice Griswold." The machine above is the Red Star model, which is considered a step up from the more common (and less expensive) round-base Griswold. It has the prominent legs, the multi-faceted base, the aluminum dish, and the slug rejector, all of which give it a more complex look and more appeal than the round-based Griswold. The Red Cross and its variation are much more like the Red Star than the more common round-based model, and both are considered rare.

The example pictured above is 100% original. It's the nicest example I can recall ever seeing, and has an original decal which for some reason is rarely found on Griswolds. The machine above is the one pictured on page 68 of Silent Salesmen Too, which I didn't know when I bought it but figured out later by comparing details.

The machine pictured above has a remarkable backstory, and here it is:

Bill Enes made his living as a dealer of antique vending machines, which involved hauling machines to and from various shows around the US. He's known best for authoring Silent Salesmen and the expanded sequel Silent Salesmen Too, but those books were possible because of the knowledge he'd acquired during years of buying, selling, and researching antique vendors. I saw him at shows in Southern California and in the Chicago area, and know that he also attended shows on the east coast. He lived in Lenexa, KS, which is about the mid-point of the country, so the entire country was within driving range.

Bill died suddenly in 1999 when an aneurysm burst while he was at home. He was unloading things from his van into the house, and was walking from the house to the van for another armload when he collapsed. The ambulance arrived quickly but the EMT's couldn't do anything; he was already gone. In the immediate aftermath of that event someone closed up the van and locked it, and the van remained there untouched for the next 18 years.

After Bill died, his widow Peggy continued to live in the house until about 2017, and then she moved. I don't know what condition the van was in by then, but it couldn't have been good. I also don't know what the plan for the van was when she moved, but I'd guess that the resale value of a 1990's van that had sat idle outside in Kansas weather for 18 years was close to zero. Whatever the plan was, before they parted with it someone got the bright idea to look inside to see what was there. Someone did that, and in the back of the van found a treasure trove of old vending machines, which Bill had been unloading when he died. They'd sat in the van for 18 years, through frigid winters and hot, sticky summers without anyone knowing about them.

This Red Star is one of the machines found in the van. It's a spectacular example of the model even without knowing its provenance, but knowing the story behind it makes this even more special. It's the specific machine pictured on Silent Salesmen Too, page 68 (top middle), so Bill must have owned it for at least a year or two before that book was published in 1995. Because its ownership can be ascribed to Bill from before 1995 to 1999, odds are that this machine was part of Bill's collection and not just part of his inventory.

A National Breath Pellet machine was also among the things found in that van, and you can see it and read about it here.