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Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Furniture, Design & Mirrors / A RARE MILLS NOVELTY COMPANY, CHICAGO, VIOLANO-VIRTUOSO COIN...
A RARE MILLS NOVELTY COMPANY, CHICAGO, VIOLANO-VIRTUOSO COIN OPERATED MUSIC MACHINE The single-violin model, with piano accompaniment, 25 cent coin operated, in polished mahogany case. Identification number: No. 4138, stamped to frame back, indicating this is a later 1920s model, with G D E A violin tuning and start/stop buttons, piano accompaniment with the Mills Violano decal to piano action rail, roll drive mechanism with period on/rewind switches and motor, violin fingerboard bearing the numerous patent dates, rosin block and wheel-bows, counter-weight shot-filled chambers on extended rods through to the drive mechanism chamber, in rouge-finished and polished case with interior glass bev panels before the piano hammers, the double adverse-hinged doors to the front with oval-knob pulls, above motor doors flanked by finely tapering and fluted Corinthian column supports, typical hinged plain top as the swell flap, this model comes with twelve additional rolls, spare coins and photocopy of the original manual. CONDITION: VERY GOOD THROUGHOUT, IN WORKING ORDER References: Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments, Q. David Bowers, 1972, pp.506-525 The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments, Arthur A. Reblitz, 2001, p.195, pp. 198-200 Automatic Pianos, Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, 2004, p.52, 246 Provenance: Private UK collection since 1970s. Footnote: The Mills Novelty Company are probably best remembered as makers of 'one-armed bandits', stereo card viewers, fortune telling machines and other amusement and entertainment devices which involved extracting people's money. In 1909, they introduced the Violano-Virtuoso, which was mainly to add an exciting new attention-grabbing model to their line but even they could not envisage what a success it would be. It was singled out by the US government as one of the eight greatest inventions of the decade when it was introduced at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition and was hailed as one of the most important and incredible musical devices ever made.
Estimate:£10,000
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Estimate:
£10,000
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