Hance Breath Pellet

(Click on image to enlarge it)

Hance Mfg. Co., Westerville, OH, c. 1910's or 1920's, 8 ¹/₂". I don't have a reference for the date on this model, but the estimate of 1910's or early 1920's seems right and is consistent with Hance's heyday.

This is listed in Silent Salesmen Too (page 70) as the "Rex Breath Pellet" machine but nobody I know calls it that---to collectors this is the "Hance Breath Pellet." I'd bet good money that if you mention "Rex Breath Pellet" in passing to a collector, they'll say "wait...what?" I usually follow Bill's nomenclature when tagging models on this site but in this case I'm going with the common vernacular.

It's a cute machine, small and with tiny paws that set it apart from mere feet. The side and profile of this model are also more interesting than most models', with the scallop pattern on the side and the extensions in front and back. The aluminum version is probably the smallest and lightest vendor I own. It's made entirely of aluminum except for the glass globe, rubber feet, and several small pieces of internal hardware such as springs. It's tiny and light and can't possibly justify its price based on heft factor alone. It weighs about as much as a newborn robin and would not make a good paperweight in a moderate wind gust. Luckily for me, that's not what I bought it for.

Pictured above are three examples that I've owned or still own. The first one pictured is one that I bought from a friend but then sold during the Tuition Years. I missed it, so after the kids graduated and were off the payroll, I found the second one at the Indy Ad Show and bought it. These two exemplify the one aspect of this model that's always baffled me, and that's the front adornment. Most examples I've seen have had tags similar to that on the second one, but the tags have differed in what the text said and some have had serial numbers. The one pictured on the left has a holder for (presumably) a paper label and is the only example I've seen like that. I'd like that one back but methinks that's about as likely as Phoebe Cates calling me and asking me out to dinner.

The third one is porcelainized cast iron and is almost a different animal. Everything that's aluminum on the first two examples is made of cast iron on this one. It has the same design and shape but all that cast iron gives it heft. As an aside, I'd wanted a white porcelain Hance Breath Pellet for forever and this is the first one I had the chance to buy except for one that went for stupid money at an auction, which I technically coulda bought but opted to keep my wits and let someone else overpay. I learned my lesson about that years ago with the Lantern Vendor and haven't forgot it. I've also seen a cast iron version without the porcelainized finish, so the available options are aluminum, plated cast iron, and porcelainized cast iron. The aluminum version is the most common of those three.

Silent Salesmen Too also describes a version that has a non-removable lid and "no exterior lock," which presumably refers to the baseplate lock in back. You had to turn the machine upside down and load pellets through a tube in the machine's bottom. That has to be the earliest version, which was a dumb design that probably lasted a week until the Hance folks sobered up and redesigned it. I've never seen one in person.

The aluminum version has been reproduced well, so be careful if you find one for sale. Because of the quality of the reproductions, I had decided that I'd never own an aluminum Hance Breath Pellet machine because the fakes were potentially too good and I didn't want to get stuck with an expensive forgery. I obviously didn't stick to that resolve.

The examples above are all original except for the decal, which is a new paper decal.

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