Wishiwell fortune teller

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sweetmeats
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Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by sweetmeats »

About twenty years ago I attended a Steve Hunt auction. In those days the catalogue had very brief descriptions and no illustrations. The lot of interest was listed "fortune teller". It attracted much interest with the successful bidder telling everyone in advance he would buy it! I was the under bidder at the time. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I heard this person was selling part of his collection to help his son with a deposit to buy his first home. I contacted him at once and asked if he still had the machine and would he sell it. The answer to both was yes, so I now own it. The questions I ask you all are - who made and has anyone seen another? The front is cast metal and case wood. It is quite heavy with a heavily engineered mechanism for a simple yes/no machine. Size about 300x300x450 high.
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treefrog
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by treefrog »

Looks like the type of novelty item that's are used for charity purposes seen in other forms or as counter top novelty. I see there is only 5 stops, are there more yes's than no's.

The base is made of ply by the looks of it, maybe 30's or 50's, but what do I know. I can see an amount of the mechanism in the past has needed to be replaced, the shines ally bits...certainly different
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moonriver
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by moonriver »

My guess is it being Bollands, one of the reasons being the unusual star decorations I have the same on one of my machines.

When I bought my Bolland Love Test I was surprised by how over engineered and elaborate the mechanism was to achieve the relatively simple selection at the front, which seemed to be a characteristic of theirs.
Last edited by moonriver on Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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badpenny
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by badpenny »

moonriver wrote:when I bought my Love Test I was surprised by how over engineered and elaborate the mechanism was to achieve the relatively simple selection at the front
Love is a very complicated thing! !PUZZLED!
That's why I only concentrate on Maynard's Wine Gums these days.
:didact:

BP
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moonriver
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by moonriver »

I knew you didn't achieve the dizzy heights you reach by being teetotal :burp:
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gameswat
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by gameswat »

moonriver wrote:My guess is it being Bollands, one of the reasons being the unusual star decorations I have the same on one of my machines
Maybe if the stars were cast into the front, but only hand painted so doubtful. More likely if they are an exact match with your machine then they were probably painted by the same operator?
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moonriver
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by moonriver »

My Bolland machine appears so far to have been a one off and has turned up on a vintage photo at the end of a line of Bolland models on their Chessington Zoo concession. My stars are not cast but they appear to be original to the machine. In this case they were indeed done by the operator.

These four pointed stars done slightly off centre differ from the normal shape of stars, and as all sign writers have their own lettering style and artwork it seems feasible to me that they may come from the same stable given the similar mechanics too?
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gameswat
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by gameswat »

Nice to have the whole story for your theory Moon. From the quick look I took of the Wishiwell it looked like recent paint on the case to me so I presumed it was all newer. But on looking again with closer inspection it seems like the instructions etc were protected by glass so they could well be untouched.

Are you sure your machine was actually made by Bolland and not just operated by them?
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moonriver
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by moonriver »

Yes, definitely a Bolland, has a clown head - pic on Jerry's Bollands survey on here.
sweetmeats
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by sweetmeats »

Thank you for all your comments. I would make the following clarifications: the roof, well and playfield are all cast ali. The wood is pine not ply, the stars and fortunes are all hand painted. The paint looks fresh but is the same as twenty years ago and did not look new then. I understand from the vender that it did not work when he bought it and a replacement part was made by a member of the Mechanical Music Society. If you look at the picture, it is the vertical part on the right hand side; all other parts appear original. The ali parts are not as bright as in the photo, probably caused by the flash. I also thought it could be Bollands but surely it was not a one off with these castings - there must be others.
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moonriver
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by moonriver »

Yes it certainly seems like a waste not to have made a run of them after having the castings made. My clown head Bolland 'Bloody Tower' has a cast castle front and battlements which seems to have been a one off (as the other Bloody Tower in the wide case version, the castings are different).
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moonriver
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by moonriver »

Following on from my recent contact and fascinating conversation with Arthur Bolland, I can confirm that Arthur has confirmed, following seeing the photographs, that the Wishiwell is indeed his Father's work.
When I asked Arthur about the mystery of the similar and unusual 4 pointed stars decorating both my Love Test and sweetmeat's Wishiwell, Arthur knew straight away and said his Father always drew stars like that with 4 instead of 5 points!
lewin
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Re: Wishiwell fortune teller

Post by lewin »

badpenny wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:41 pm
moonriver wrote:when I bought my Love Test I was surprised by how over engineered and elaborate the mechanism was to achieve the relatively simple selection at the front
Love is a very complicated thing! !PUZZLED!
That's why I only concentrate on Maynard's Wine Gums these days.
:didact:

BP
The truth has been spoken :HaHa:
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