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Pulver Chocolate Cocoa and Gum
(a "Tin Litho" Pulver, c. 1899)

Pulver Chocolate & Chicle Mfg. Co., Rochester, NY, c. 1899, 24". The Chocolate Cocoa and Gum is a "tin litho" Pulver, which is one of two types of early tall-case Pulvers. The Tin Litho Pulver comes in 2 flavors, which differ only in their front panels: the Chocolate Cocoa and Gum and the Kola-Pepsin Gum. The other tall-case version of the Pulver is just as tall and has porcelain front and side panels, and is the version collectors typically mean when they refer to a 'tall-case Pulver.' Silent Salesmen Too (page 158-159) has some good pictures of examples of both types of tall-case models and describes some variations. Check it out if you want to learn more.

The case on this model is made of embossed tin finished with beautiful lithographed advertising for Pulver gum. The top, the bottom, and the side rails are made of thick painted steel. I can't think of a more striking machine than one of these in good condition. Even a rough one is pretty, but in mint condition it's so gorgeous that if Phoebe Cates Katie Holmes Jennifer Anniston were standing naked next to a mint example, giving you come hither eyes, you'd look mostly at the Pulver. I wouldn't---I'm a heterosexual guy coursing with testosterone---but you might if you're, say, a heterosexual woman or a long-time male resident of San Francisco. I might sneak a look at the Pulver, but would try to not get caught.

But enough about sexual preferences and naked starlets. The 2-column mechanism inside the Tin Litho Pulver is the same as that in other tall-case Pulvers and is similar to those in the later short-case Pulvers. The 2 major differences between tall-case and short-case mechanisms is that the tall-case mechs are taller than the short-case mechs (duh!), and the characters differ. Tall-case and Tin Litho Pulvers came with the Yellow Kid, Buster Brown, Foxy Grandpa (a.k.a the Professor), or Uncle Sam. I'm not overly knowledgable about the relative rarity of these characters, but I know that Buster Brown and Uncle Sam are both quite scarce, as is (so I've been told) the "Nodding Professor," which is a version of the Professor that nods and bows several times as it rotates.

Most Tin Litho Pulvers are faded, with the graphics visible but not bold and vibrant. Some are rusty. Not surprisingly, price depends on the condition of the case and on the character. Tin Litho Pulvers are considered rare and are hard to find in any condition.

The two examples pictured above are 100% original.

• The machine pictured on the left and middle is in very good to excellent condition and has a nodding Professor. It's an early example of a Tin Litho Pulver, which you can discern several ways including the paper inside the front panel which states that the machine was loaned, not sold. If you look carefully you can see that the front panels are faded compared to the side panels, and the bottom front panel is a bit more faded than the top front panel. I bought this from a knowledgable and established collector at the Durham, North Carolina COCA convention in July 2010, and several other experienced collectors inspected this machine closely. There's no doubt that this front door is the one that belongs on this case, that the panels have not been swapped out, or that the paint is original. No doubt at all. So we hypothesized that the machine was placed in a location where the front---but not the sides---saw the sun, and that the bottom front saw more sun than the top. This could have happened if it were mounted outside facing east or west under a porch roof or awning that shaded sun from the top more than from the bottom, or was mounted inside so that sunshine came in through a window in such a way to expose the bottom more than the top. This is all speculative and I'm sure we'll never know the story for this particular machine, but it fits the evidence and I can't think of another explanation that does.

• The third picture is another example of the same model and version, which I bought at the Indy Ad Show in September 2021. I hadn't planned to buy another Tin Litho Pulver---didn't even think I wanted one because I was quite happy with the one I had---but the condition grabbed me. It has a little paint loss toward the back of the sides (which you can see on one side here), but it's not glaring and is more than offset by the front which is downright vibrant! This example also has the Nodding Professor, which if it's so scarce how did I end up with two of them? Just lucky, I guess. This example was part of Bill Enes's collection when he died in 1999.