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Nut House

Little Nut Vendor Co., c. 1935, 7 ¹/₂". This is one of the shortest vending machines ever made. The top and bottom are cast iron on both versions shown above. The midsection is aluminum on the left machine and steel on the right machine. The back of the machine looks like the front except for the seam and the lack of a mechanism.

This is a hard model to find and all of the few other examples I've seen are like the one on the right, with steel bodies painted green and roofs and baseplates painted red. The etched aluminum midsection on the left machine sets it apart from the norm and is the only one I've seen like this. I'd wanted a Nut House for a number of years but my interest waned as the price climbed to a level I thought was a bit insane. I also came to realize that figural machines don't float my boat, and I was explaining that to a friend at a Chicagoland show when this appeared on the table beside us and I said "excuse me" and bought it. Speaking of a bit insane....

Both machines pictured above are 100% original.

Here's the story behind the machine on the left, which I bought first:

I bought it at the May 2023 Indy Ad Show from a friend who sells at the Chicagoland show and the Indy Ad Show. He'd had it at the Chicagoland show a few weeks earlier and I'd overheard several people commenting on its unusual nature. I looked at it and thought it was interesting but didn't buy it because I thought it was too pricey and because I don't like figural machines, right? I said that above so you know that about me. Nobody else bought it, either, but their reason was price, not lack of interest.

So the Indy Ad Show arrived a few weeks later and my wife and I attended. I saw the Nut House on the same seller's table, and after greeting him and his wife and some chit-chat I went over to check it out, this time more carefully than I had in Chicago. The Indy Ad Show is a good one but there's less coin-op there than at the Chicagoland show, hence less competition for my attention. Plus, I'd had a few weeks to get hungry again...y'all know how that goes, right? I was still intrigued by the etched midsection, but not intrigued enough to pull the trigger at the price. The seller and I were standing side by side in front of the machine and discussing it when my wife walked over and stood by the seller, whom she knows and is friendly with. She glanced at the Nut House and said to both of us: "Oh, that's cute!" And then to me: "You can buy that one." I said "Can I put it somewhere you can see it?" She said "Yes" and then walked away. I watched her walk away and then looked at the seller, who'd watched this exchange. He turned to me and I saw a gleam in his eyes and a grin (or was it a smirk?) on his face. The machine's on my website so you know what happened next.

The machine was parched and needed to be rejuvenated. I brought it home, disassembled it, hosed it down with WD-40, and then let it set for 5 months while I was in Boston for work. When I got back to town I re-assembled it, added some navy beans old dessicated candy to it, and set it on top of a lawyers' bookcase in my office with two other small machines. It fit the space perfectly and looked good. Not long after I did that, my wife came into my office to ask me something, and when she turned to leave she saw the Nut House and said "Heyyyyy, you were gonna put that somewhere I could see it!" I said "Where do you want it" and she said "On the bookshelves in the family room." I said "Okay, but I'll have to bump something." She said "Can I choose what it replaces?" and I said "Yep." I grabbed the Nut House and we walked to the family room. She looked over the machines and finally pointed to the spot where this was and said "You can put it here." I said okay, put the Nut House there and moved the collar button vendor to the lawyers' bookcase where the Nut House had been.

I was surprised at the Indy Ad Show that she liked it---it's an interesting machine but it's not pretty and she typically doesn't like 'silver machines'---but 6 months later she remembered it and wanted it moved to a more-frequent line of sight so she musta been serious when she said she liked it.

I already had the black-and-silver version on the left. I liked the model more than I thought I would given that it's figural, but always thought the more common version was prettier. The machine on the right appeared in the Spring 2024 Morphy auction and I bought it. I thought if my wife liked the left machine then she'd love the right machine, but I was wrong--she likes the left one better. I like the right one better, so I kept both.