Take a gamble on slot machine
IF YOU were going to bet on the lot that would draw the crowds at Moore Allen & Innocent’s general and antiques sale next Friday (August 13) the clever money would be on a 1930s one-armed bandit, all the way from the USA.
The gambling device has an interesting provenance: it was brought to the UK by the owners of a casino in the 1950s as a memento – it was the first slot machine they bought when opening their casino some two decades earlier.
With its Art Deco front and Native American head feature – a nod to the fact that the first casinos were built on reservations – this Jennings Gibraltar Casino certainly is a striking piece. It is unusual in that it comes complete with its original wooden stand, whereas many examples have lost their legs, and features a steeplechase element with horse icons, as well as the traditional fruits, which must be lined up for a win.
Happily the machine has been converted to accept UK currency. Less happily, the new owner will need to feed it pre 1997-sized 50 pence coins, or have the mechanism converted again. Despite this, auctioneers are confident someone will gamble £300 to £400 to own this lot.
If the Americans gave us slot machines, they probably got the better end of the bargain when we sent The Beatles. But while the Fab Four were making waves on this side on the Atlantic, there were plenty of American teenagers who wanted their own slice of Beatlemania.
Included in the sale is a small collection of early American-issue Beatles albums, either imported from the UK or pressed in the States under licence.
Introducing… The Beatles, Englands No 1 Vocal Group(complete with missing apostrophe) on Vee-Jay records is the earliest in the collection.
It is virtually the same as Please Please Me, released here in 1963, but US albums were traditionally twelve tracks long, so the title track and Ask Me Whywere dropped for the American release, and the album was renamed.
Also in the eight-album collection is Songs and Pictures of the Fabulous Beatles, also on Vee-Jay, Beatlemania! With The Beatles, produced for the Canadian market by Capitol, and a copy of Magical Mystery Tour, released by EMI in 1967 and imported to America, complete with 24-page colour booklet.
The collection carries an estimate of £80 to £120.
Beatlemania, of course, fuelled an entire industry based on merchandise bearing the band’s name. But before tour T-shirts and hooded tops, silk handkerchiefs seem to have been the memento of choice for many concert-goers.
In truth, the concert in question was an opera performance, held at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on June 23, 1897 to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Victoria.
Thanks to a programme on a silk handkerchief produced for the occasion, we know that the set list comprised a rousing rendition of God Save the Queen, performed by the principal actors and full cast, followed by Act 2 of Wagner’s Tannhauser, Act 3 of Romeo Et Juliette – an opera first performed in Paris just two months earlier – and Act 4 of Les Huguenots, the smash hit opera from France.
A bid of £30 to £50 should secure this piece of pre-rock memorabilia.
Whilst Victorian city-dwellers were tapping their toes to opera, their country cousins were breeding livestock for show and competition. It’s a country pursuit that has survived to this day, and going under the hammer are some interesting medals from local agricultural shows.
A Victorian twin handled goblet in silver, later inscribed Cirencester Park 1954, carries an estimate of £50 to £70.
Meanwhile, three medals awarded by the Wessex Saddleback Pig Society for the Best Wessex Saddleback Pig at the Chippenham Agriculture Show, cast in silver with a delightful Art Nouveau design and dated 1921, 1922 and 1924 respectively, will be sold alongside two medals featuring horse heads, inscribed Awarded by the Editor of Riding for Novice Pony First Prize and Novice Pony Second Prize. A bid of £40 to £60 should secure the lot.
And lovers of equestrian wares will be pleased to learn that the Sporting Sale, to be held on Friday, August 27, features a large collection of horse and hunting-related antiques.
For more information about forthcoming sales, log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk
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| A 1930s one-armed bandit | Country show medals |
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| A copy of Introducing… The Beatles | A silk handkerchief produced for an opera performance, held at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on June 23, 1897 to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Victoria |