CoinOpCollectorForum.com

on ebay now, race car on the front, flat black paint? is this a mashup slot?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131569949526?eu ... 1966629346

First,of all it is English . Most likely a Tommy Boland conversion from England made for the English market of course. Anglobritish most likely can nail it down for you. I actually own a Boland conversion and really kind of like the fact that it was a special creation by a very innovative operator. He also was known during WWII to take diggers and gut them out to make working model machines which are really wild looking and working pieces like the "drunkards dream". A an auction site in England called elephant auctions has a video of one working. Hope this helps. Billy Zap

You are correct Mr. Zap. This is one of the Tom Bolland English examples in 1d coinage. There was also
more than one casting variation of the "Brooklands" Race Car model. He also did several other models.
One of which is "Screen Stars", which shows up quite often. These are normally good playing machines,
and have an appeal all their own. Most U.S. collectors shy away from any Foreign mfr'd machines. One
reason being, that many are not found in the greatest condition, because a good many of them were on
location outdoors, and suffered from the elements, near the pond.
I for one, like a good number of the Foreign examples. Especially from France. Caille was one of our U.S.
mfrs., that had a facility in France, that produced a complete line of French-only, machine examples,
that you very rarely see here in the states. Many were more fancy than most of the models produced
over here. I was blown out of my socks years ago, when I seen a vast amount of 'super-ornate' machines,
in a French collection, that will probably never be seen by most collectors. There have been very few
examples, that have shown up over here since then, but nothing compared to what I had seen. I always
thought a long time ago, that I would have seen an example of every machine that had been produced.
But I know now, that none of us Ever Will. New examples are being unearthed on a regular basis. I have
had many machines, that were the only known examples at the time, of which others have shown up since.
Some only one or two, and others, a few. I also have some original ads of machines, that I have still not
seen the real-deal as yet. Who knows where those ended up, or were they ever produced? Time may tell.

We'll thank you for the verification . The conversion I have has a mills mech and is in a wooden deco style case with the metal castings calling it the "white city". Your reply also kinda of answers a question about why this French man came into my shop and paid me good money for a nice deco Callie machine many many years ago when the European buyers first started to come over. Never did see that man again. I have heard about the French machines from Norman Kostner a well known dealer from Holland. He promised me a book about such machines I hope he remembers to bring it to this upcoming show. I guess the fun part of this hobby is the fact there is always something new popping up. I often wonder how my Tommy Boland wound up on this side of the pond. By the way this prejudice against foreign machines extends to the sign collectible hobby too. Though in the gas and oil collectible end these signs are starting to raise in price and acceptability among American collectors.

Yes you are right- the machine is a conversion by Tom Boland of Leeds- but he should not be confused with Freddie Bolland of Peckham, London who made the working models amongst other machines. Both were colourful characters who fought in and survived the First World War.

You can find a full history of both these makers in my book More Automatic Pleasures, available from Amazon

Nic Costa

I am a victim of misinformation somewhere I thought I read they were brothers. I think it was in a recent auction catalogue giving Tommy Bolland the credit for the working model machines. I stand corrected. And will make a point of ordering your book. Thanks