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Mansfield

(Click on image to enlarge it)

Automatic Clerk Co., Newark, NJ, c. 1902, 16" with marquee, 12" without marquee. This is a classic vendor. A friend of mine once said that this would be an $8,000 machine had so many not been made, but there were so it's not.

It's a 2-column vendor that---except for the base---is encased entirely in glass. The glass is plain except for the front panel, which is etched with the following:

AUTOMATIC
CLERK
MANSFIELD'S
CHOICE
PEPSIN GUM

The customer inserted a nickel, which traveled through a chute inside the case and tripped a lever during its fall. That action allowed one of the spring-loaded stacks to rise the height of one gum pack, and the top pack was flipped off toward the front where it fell onto the front shelf at the bottom. At the end of the nickel's fall it hit a bell, which let the proprietor know someone was messin' with his machine.

I know of three styles of base on this model, all of them shown above. The painted cast iron base on the left example is the earliest. It's patterned around the edge and is easy to identify at a glance. The other two styles are both pressed steel finished with nickel or chrome. The machine pictured second has the more common of the pressed steel styles, with a square-cornered base about the same size as the earlier cast iron base. The third machine pictured has the larger pressed steel base with rounded corners. Ranking the scarcity of these styles, I'd say that the smaller pressed steel base is the most common by a long shot, followed by the cast iron base and then the larger pressed steel base, which is hard to find. I suspect that one version of the pressed steel bases was earlier than the other, but I don't know which one that would have been.

The flavor strip along the top of the front was made of aluminum or celluloid. The aluminum strip was earlier and is correct with the cast iron base, while the celluloid strip is later and is correct with the pressed steel base. There may have been a transition period during which an aluminum strip/pressed steel base or a celluloid strip/cast iron base was paired at the factory, but in the absence of company literature or advertising with such an example we'll never know because cases can be easily swapped between bases.

The Mansfield was available with three styles of marquees:

The painted aluminum marquee shown in the left picture
The mirrored glass marquee shown in the second and third pictures
The foil-backed glass marquee shown in the fourth picture.

The first two styles are coveted by collectors and are hard to find, while the foil-backed glass version is even harder to find because it's quite rare. In fact, I didn't know it existed until I saw this one at the November 2021 Chicagoland show. It was in the case of a friend and experienced collector, and he's the one who gave me the skinny on the style. According to him only four or five are known to exist. See here for a closer picture. Note not just the foil in the marquee but also the dark lettering compared to the white lettering on the mirrored glass marquee in the second and third pictures. The mirrored marquee is prettier than the aluminum style but the aluminum version seems to be harder to find. I'll bet I've seen more than a hundred Mansfields in collections or appearing for sale in public venues, but I can recall only six or seven original mirrored marquees and only two or three original aluminum marquees.

I know from Mansfield literature that the aluminum and mirrored marquees are both correct with the pressed steel base, but I don't know that both are correct with the cast iron base. Variations in various vendor models generally evolved from higher production cost to lower production cost, which would imply that the mirrored marquee was earlier and that the aluminum marquee---which had to be cheaper to make---came later. Despite this convention, I've always perceived the aluminum marquee to be earlier on the Mansfield, but can't point to a specific reason I think that. I suspect I heard it from a trusted source, but I can't remember who or when or why I trusted him. I don't know where the foil-backed glass marquee fits into that lineage.

The aluminum and mirrored marquee styles have been reproduced well, so be careful when buying a Mansfield with a marquee.

It's been years since I've seen a reproduced aluminum marquee, and I doubt they're available any more from the original fabricator. By now they may be 30 to 40 years old and acquiring the satiny patina you'd expect on a nice original.
The mirrored style has been reproduced at least twice; once in the late 1970s or 1980s, and once in 2001 or 2002. Both runs were accurate reproductions of the original and were nicely done. The mirrored reproduction from 2001/2002 is available from a friend; if you want one, email me and I'll put you in touch with him. It's not cheap, but it's a lot less than an original. If you can't find an original marquee or you don't want to pony up the money for one, then you can complete your Mansfield with a mirrored reproduction and have the same look that an original would give you. Oftentimes a reproduction doesn't look right on an old machine because of mismatched patinas, but since the Mansfield case and the mirrored marquee are both glass they look fine together.

I've heard of one or two Mansfields with a Mansfield decal on the side glass. They're purportedly paper labels affixed to the inside or outside (I don't remember which), and if I remember correctly they're fairly large and graphically ornate. These are rare and I've never seen one personally myself live in person.

I've heard from other collectors about variations in the Mansfield mechanism, which implies that it changed at least a little over time. Specifically, collectors have said (for example) that "the Mansfield that my buddy Bill got on eBay turned out to be rare because...." and then go on to explain a nuance of the mechanism that I didn't follow because I had not studied a Mansfield mechanism in detail. Still, these were collectors who had studied them closely so when they tell me there were differences, I believe them even though I don't understand the differences. If I had, then I could explain them here but I didn't so I can't. Still, be aware that there are some differences and be prepared to pounce if you see a rare variation. Pounce, I say! You won't have to worry about me pouncing first because I won't recognize it if I do see it.

There's an earlier version of the Mansfield that's described in Silent Salesmen Too, page 17, bottom right corner. Mr. Enes called it "a one-of-a-kind Mansfield," but I know an advanced collector who knows of five examples. Still rare, but not quite one-of-a-kind. It has a cast iron base but instead of having an aluminum or celluloid strip with gum flavors across the top of the front, the flavors and "5¢" are etched into the front glass near the top. I don't know if the mechanism on this early example differed substantially from those on the later examples pictured above.

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