CHICAGO — Potter & Potter will bring more than 750 lots to market Thursday, September 12 in its Coin-Op and Advertising mega-sale. The event includes a big variety of fortune teller coin-operated machines with provenance to the Mike Gorski collection of faithful reproductions. The complete catalog is now available for bidding at LiveAuctioneers.
Gorski (1930-2017) was one of America’s most prominent coin-op collectors, beloved by his peers and a fixture on the show and auction circuit. He manufactured and sold re-creations of many of the world’s most prized coin-ops, making affordable options for those who would otherwise be priced out of the market. ACN covered the sale of one of his Mademoiselle Zita fortune teller machines in a November 2008 story on a Showtime Auction Services sale.
One of Gorski’s favorite re-creations was the One Cent Donkey Wonder Fortune Telling Arcade Machine. Made in the 1980s and faithfully re-created from the Roovers original, the machine stands 79in in height. Inside the case sits the donkey which, after a coin is inserted and the lever is pulled, nods his head, wiggles his ears, moves his head, and then spins the ship’s wheel before him. The player’s fortune is determined based on where the wheel lands. The Gorski machine is estimated at $8,000-$12,000.
The sale’s top-estimated lot is an Edison Stock Ticker. Invented by Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) in 1870, this example is labeled for T. A. Edison and dates to around 1900. When connected to the Western Union Telegraph Co. subscription service, the user would receive a steady stream of stock and commodity quotations printed on a ticker-tape paper roll. Its cast-iron base states ‘Quotations Furnished by Western Union Telegraph Co / Apply to Local Manager’. The example comes with fresh, new-old stock tape and is estimated at $15,000-$25,000.
The leading advertising lot is a figural Hackett Drug Co. ‘The Live Druggists’ hanging sign. Dating to either the 1890s or early 1900s, the large embossed- and painted-tin sign of a man hanging by his hands was certain to grab the attention of passers-by. The figure wears a bowler hat, long-sleeve shirt, trousers, and brown boots. The sign measures 45 by 76in and is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.
