Mills Dewey-Chicago Triplet Slot Machine

One of only a handful ever made, this Double DeLuxe Violano Virtuoso, created by the Mills Novelty Company, is an extremely rare example of American musical automata, featuring not one, but two brilliantly tuned violins. Singled out by the U.S. government in 1909 as one of the eight greatest inventions of the decade when it was introduced at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, the Mills DeLuxe Violano-Virtuoso stands as one of the most important and incredible musical devices ever made. The “Double Mills,” as it was nicknamed, plays classical, operatic and popular music. It can play on a single or up to 15 nickels and has the ability to run for approximately an hour. It produces exceptional sound with a crisp tonal quality and melodious notes. Housed in a beautiful quarter-sawn oak case, each violin produces 64 notes and is accompanied by a 44-note piano. It is truly rare to find a historical musical mechanism so complete, with such remarkable sound quality and in excellent condition. This particular Violano has been updated with a digital player system that allows song selections to be made over a WiFi connection. This gives the user a choice between digital downloads or traditional paper rolls for added convenience. Perfected and patented in 1912 by Henry K. Sandell, the Violano-Virtuoso was produced in limited quantities until 1929 and could be found in the very finest restaurants, hotels and oceanliners. In fact, the Violano-Virtuoso was one of the few American-made mechanical musical devices to be distributed worldwide to the most exclusive international clientele. The below testimonial was sent to the Mills Company by the Governor of Idaho, aptly describing the incredible music produced by the Violano-Virtuoso. Dear Sir, Have just had the pleasure of listening to your wonderful Automatic Violin and Piano on exhibition at the Government Building here. This marvelous instrument certainly far surpasses anything that I have eve heard in automatic music. The tone and expression of the violin and the piano are so perfect and clear that is really hard to believe but that there is the human hand playing..." Indeed, for the price of a nickel, the Mills Violano...

This Swiss-engineered cipher machine is a fascinating piece of 20th-century military and engineering history, and this particular example is one of the ...

A triumph of ingenuity and craftsmanship, this Swiss cipher machine is a fabulous example of mechanical precision. Cipher machines are used to encrypt a...

Considered the first step into the world of modern photocopying, the copying machine was among the first widely used devices to successfully produce an ex...

Bar game called the ball cascade, mechanical. Works with 1penny coins. Bryan's Elevenses oak and metal - 1950. Presented on a non-original metal pedestal, height total: 156 cm. H...

Art Deco period penny scale by Mills Novelty co. Period green porcelain pedestal with cream colored foot hold.

Today in the world of collecting coin operated amusements, there are many machines which are classified as “unattainable.” These machines are either so rare that there are only 1-2 or no known examples today. This is one of the rarest as well as the earliest Penney Arcade machine...

Vintage 1970s Dewey Weber wave mural surfboard. Features beautiful airbrushed full length wave mural on the deck with greenish yellow tinted rails/bottom. Swallow tail shape design. ...