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Ryede

Ryede Specialty Works, Rochester, NY, c. 1912 or later (but probably not much later), 34". I saw this machine at the November 2018 Chicagoland show and liked it immediately. Like the Ryede Chewing Gum made by the same company, most of the front is filled with something interesting and that makes the machine interesting overall. The shallow profile, the color, the mirror, the little ornamental details on the underside of the "roofline" and to the sides of "DELIVERS THE GOODS OR RETURNS THE MONEY," the outstanding condition with the just-right patina on the metal front, the white porcelain tray---it all comes together just so. It has 4 coin slots for 4 columns controlled by 2 plungers, with the type of product labelled above each of the 4 coin slots.

It's a heavy bugger; Silent Salesmen Too says it's made of sheet metal but doesn't add that it's thick sheet metal. In that regard it reminds me of the German Schokolade, which is made of cast iron and sheet metal that I think might have been leftover material fabricated for World War 1 German tanks. I typically think of early multi-column wall-mounted vendors as being made of wood, which describes the Ryede Wilbur's pictured on Silent Salesmen Too page 135 but not on this site 'cause I ain't got one and never did (a situation to remedy someday, right?). The design of the front of the Ryede Wilbur's is just like the design of the one above, but the case is made of wood with porcelain panels that advertise Wilbur's Sweet Clover Chocolate. The July 30, 1912 patent date and the "Pat. Pending" on that one matches those on the metal-cased machine above, so it's the same design and mechanism, just a different case. I don't know why Ryede made the same machine in both wood and metal cases, but they might not have been concurrent; maybe Ryede made the wood case first and then used the same design and mechanism for a more "evolved" version made of steel. We'll probably never know fer shure, but that's the most likely explanation I can think of.

The example above is 100% original and in excellent condition. It's considered rare in Silent Salesmen Too, which surprised me when I learned that but then I tried to recall if I'd ever seen another example and came up blank. This doesn't look to be the one pictured in Silent Salesmen Too so at least one other one exists---and I suspect a few more do, too, but I don't know where.