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Nobby's Salted Peanuts

Australia, c. 1920's, 39". In Silent Salesmen Too this is Nobby's Salted Peanuts with no manufacturer cited. Nobby's is what it sells but I don't think it's the manufacturer. It's a Big Muther, and heavy; think L-vendor except metal, with feet and a globe and a totally different mechanism. But heft-wise? . . . yeah, L-vendor.

The circa 1920's is from Silent Salesmen Too. Without it I'd have pegged this as 1930's to 1950's but I know Bill did his homework so let's go with the 20's. It doesn't feel like a 1920's model but maybe that's because it's shiny; show me an example with a nice satiny patina like those on some old Bluebirds (like this one) and maybe I'd say "oh yeah, the 20's it is." Come to think of it, a buffed Bluebird also doesn't feel as old as it is, so maybe that is the reason.

This model has a lot going for it. It's highly embossed, has a monkey perched on its lid, a big ol' honkin' tray under the exit spout, a counter on the side, and great graphics including the advertising panels but also the instructional panels embossed into a brass plaque on the front and a raised aluminum piece by the coin insert. I've put pictures of these all on one page here so you don't have to click back and forth. You're welcome.

I don't know how the globe is attached, but it's not with rods. It seems to be puttied into place but there may be another other method also in play to help stabilize it. I'm not gonna mess with it to find out.

Here's how the lid is installed: An aluminum triangular-ish piece is attached to the underside of the lid, and the extended corners of the triangle fit into three slots in the hold-down ring. Once the lid is in place in the slots, turn it 45 degrees counterclockwise until the holes in the tabs on the back of the lid and the back of the hold-down ring line up and can be locked in place. I go into this detail because when I got this machine the lid had been turned too far counterclockwise and was stuck, and I couldn't figure out how to unstick it. A friend sent me a picture of his and saved the day; it turned out I was turning it even further counterclockwise thereby tightening it even more.

The stand the Nobby's sits on in the pictures is not original to the machine but it fits the machine perfectly any way you want to interpret "fits." The size of the top is perfect. Each foot on the machine has a hole through which a screw can go and attach to whatever surface the machine sits on, and the holes in two of the feet line up with holes in the wood top. I've used them to attach the machine to the top. The base of the stand---meaning everything under the wood top---is heavy heavy metal so the stand is heavily bottom-weighted, which is important for the machine's security. Yeah, I know: I had three references to "heavy" in that sentence; it was intentional. Here's another one: The Nobby's is a heavy machine and you need to be sure it's stable when you display it.

I bought the machine pictured above at the Morphy auction in the fall of 2019. The lot included the stand the machine sits on, which was an attractive bonus. The lot was consigned to the auction by a friend, who'd bought it from a mutual friend, who'd bought it at an earlier Morphy auction, and the trail ends there. I believe this example to be almost completely nearly totally 100% original, but I know it's not quite 100% because the 'aluminum triangular-ish piece' on the underside of this lid is an obvious brass recast that works well nonetheless. I'm not sure the black paint on the back is original, nor the paint on the monkey. I don't know that any of the paint is not original, but it's in such good condition that I wonder. The machine is on free play but when you turn the knob everything works as it should, including the progression through the advertising displays. That's important. I have a vague recollection of hearing that's often not the case with Nobby's displays, but I can't say that with any degree of certainty. The displays scroll up and then down around the back---I think with chains driven by the handle as it's turned by the customer---and it's not a stretch to think that something could go wrong there.

This model is considered rare in the United States; I don't know if the same is true in Australia.