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Pulver Kola-Pepsin Gum
(a "Tall-case" Pulver, c. 1910)

Pulver Chocolate & Chicle Mfg. Co., Rochester, NY, c. 1910, 24". This is one version of a tall-case Pulver and is the one collectors mean when they say "tall-case Pulver." The other tall-case version is the "tin litho" Pulver, an example of which is here and which collectors call a Tin Litho Pulver. Why do collectors typically call this a tall-case Pulver when the Tin Litho is just as tall? Beats me. The Tin Litho is earlier so you'd think it would've had first claim to the title. Maybe it did, and instead chose "tin litho" on the advice of its publicist, manager, and perhaps legal council, leaving "tall-case" to the next generation. Anyway, after tall-case Pulvers came short-case Pulvers, so size does matter with Pulvers---at least for purposes of communication. To confuse the issue further, Pulver later made cases shorter than short-case Pulvers, but explaining this any further would require me to understand it myself. Just remember Tin Litho, tall-case, and short-case, and you'll be adequately conversational in Pulverese.

Silent Salesmen Too (page 158-159) has some good pictures of this model and some variations, so you should check that out to learn more. The versions differed either mainly or exclusively in their porcelain signage, and this version appears to be among the scarcer of the versions pictured on that page.

The case is made of thick steel and has white-on-red porcelain advertising panels attached to it. The mechanism inside this machine is the same as that inside the earlier Tin Litho Pulver and is similar to that found in the later, more familiar short-case Pulvers. The 2 major differences between the mechanisms in tall-case Pulvers and short-case Pulvers is that the tall-case mechanism is taller, and the characters differ. Tall-case Pulvers came with the Yellow Kid, Buster Brown, Foxy Grandpa (a.k.a the Professor), and 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. Also scarce (so I've been told) is the Nodding Professor, a version of the Professor that nods and bows a few times as it goes through its side-to-side motion.

Prices of tall-case Pulvers shot up during the early 2000's and then came back down toward Earth although they're still more expensive than short-case Pulvers. Price is quite sensitive to the type and condition of the case, the panels, and the character, but the range of conditions on this model does not seem to be as wide as that on Tin Litho Pulvers.

The example pictured above is 100% original and is among the nicest I've ever seen, if not the nicest. There's no real story behind it. It was an eBay purchase from someone I didn't know in Southern California, and I was feeling flush at the time. I'd been wanting one for 5 or 6 years and had not had a chance to buy a nice original example at a fair price. Actually, that's not quite true; around 1997 I had a chance to buy a nice-looking tall-case porcelain Pulver for $1600 at the Chicago show, but I passed because I wasn't sure it was all original and I was afraid to spend that much money without confirmation from at least 12 collectors whose opinion I trusted. In retrospect it was probably fine and I should have bought it. I didn't, though, and I looked for a long time afterward without success. I guess I finally lost patience; reserve on the machine above was hit early so I waited till the auction's end and then threw stupid money at it, and I mean really stupid money! I won the auction and it wasn't cheap, but it could have been worse. The front glass on this is in 2 pieces, with a horizontal split just above the "WARNING" decal. I think both panes are original, but I don't know why it's split like that.