1878 Patented Pocket Adding Machine with 1882 Instructional Book and 1892 Bristol Novelty Co. Sales Pamphlet — Complete Set
I have a complete set consisting of a small mechanical adding machine, its original accompanying instructional book, and a sales pamphlet, stored together in a fitted case. The Machine: A compact, oval-shaped nickel/silver-toned metal pocket adding machine with three columns (ones, tens, hundreds), operated by three brass-tipped studs and a single reset knob on the side. Numbers 0–9 are engraved along the top face. The machine is stamped "PAT. JAN. 8, 1878" on its face. It appears mechanically complete and does function fully. Surface shows age-appropriate scratching and patina. The Book: A Practical Treatise on Cancellation and How to Cancel, a small red leather-bound volume with gold lettering on the cover. Copyright February 1882 by Charles Creigh Fields, printed by the Transcript Printing Co., Springfield, Ohio. Published and manufactured by Peel & Elster, Springfield, Ohio, 1882. Contains the instructional and mathematical text for operating the machine. Book condition is worn — cover intact with gold lettering legible, some interior pages torn at edges. The machine sits in a fitted compartment built into the book itself, forming a single unified object. The Sales Pamphlet: A promotional pamphlet from the Bristol Novelty Company, Incorporated, Louisville, KY (organized 1892 under a Tennessee charter to manufacture articles invented by C.C. Fields of Bristol, Tennessee). Contains a biography of inventor Charles Creigh Fields (born Russell County, Virginia, 1849), promotional description of the machine, and customer testimonials dated January 1893 from sources including the President of King College and Dominion National Bank, both of Bristol, Tennessee. Pamphlet is incomplete — cover page and first interior page are missing. Remaining pages present and legible.
Book: 6 1/4"x3"x1" Machine: 2 1/8" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" Pamphlet: 4 1/2" x 3" x 1/16"
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Hi Charles,
Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry.
The Bristol Novelty Company was organized in 1892 in Bristol, TN, where railroad connections made distribution easy and small factories could employ skilled but relatively inexpensive labor. It was one of a late-19th-century wave of companies producing inexpensive turned-wood and small household novelty goods for the mass market. The firm specialized in small items - sometimes turned wood - which were sold through wholesalers, general stores, and mail-order catalogs, which fed an appetite for "notions" and novelty items.
Published in 1882, A Practical Treatise on Cancellation and How to Cancel was one of the earliest specialized American works on postage-stamp cancellation methods. Fields was an early American philatelist and postal historian active during the formative years of organized stamp collecting in the United States. During the 1870s–1880s, collectors were beginning to study not only the stamps themselves but also postmarks and cancellations, which Fields helped promote as a serious field of study.
The book was written to explain the methods used to cancel postage stamps and why cancellation was necessary. When adhesive stamps were introduced in the mid-19th century, post offices had to mark them so they could not be reused.
It discusses the history of cancellations, tools used by postmasters, the evolution of different cancel styles and how collectors should identify and classify them. Fields also describes several types of cancellations that were common in the 19th Century; a discussion of "fancy" cancels (decorative shapes carved by postmasters), is particularly important because these later became a major collecting specialty in American philately.
It's accompanied by an adding and counting machine, a mechanical postage stamp perforator / cancelling counter used by post offices or businesses. The numbers 0–9 across the top and the three viewing windows labeled 0, 00, and 000 indicate it is a three-digit mechanical counter. By pressing the lever, the device advances the numbers sequentially. These devices were used to cancel postage stamps by punching or marking them, record or control stamp usage in post offices and track accounting totals for stamps sold or canceled. Some versions also punched holes through stamps or tickets, preventing reuse.
When complete volumes of the book come up for auction, they typically sell for about $100 while the cancelling instrument is a bit more valuable - usually in the $300-500 range. Combined with the biographical pamphlet on Fields, this group would be worth $500-700 at auction today, despite some wear and missing pages.
Please let us know if you have additional items to appraise, or questions/concerns, and thank you again for using Mearto.
~ Delia
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