Appraisal: Lukat "The Lucky Cat" Trade Stimulator, ca. 1945

GUEST: I brought in a cat gumball lottery machine that was given to me by my mother a few years ago, but it actually belonged to my father.

He acquired it in the late '50s from a friend.

He traded something for it.

APPRAISER: What did, uh, your father trade for it when he got it?

GUEST: That I don't know.

APPRAISER: Well, it's a very interesting piece.

It's a very rare piece.

It is called the Lukat.

Up until a few years ago, there was only believed to be about a half a dozen of these known.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Uh, now, a, a book came out talking about them.

There's about two dozen known, but that's still a very rare item.

This one is a nickel machine.

They also make it as a dime machine.

At the time the book came out, there was believed to only be one nickel machine in existence.

So presumably, you may only have the second.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Can you show me how it works?

GUEST: So there's a coin slot here in its ear.

You just put the nickel in and you pull its tail.

And... Push that.

Oh, and I got lucky.

I got two gumballs.

And we pull the ticket out.

APPRAISER: Commercially, this piece was a disaster.

Mechanically, it's very complex, and oftentimes, it would break, jam up, and rather than be burdened with taking it completely apart to fix it, it got discarded.

This was produced roughly in the 1940s-1950s.

As far as where it was produced, reportedly, it was produced in San Francisco.

It's also...

I believe that they could be from the Midwest.

Can you tell me about where you put the gumballs in the machine?

Turn this around.

GUEST: So the gumball go in right back here.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And then there's a key, a skeleton key that opens a drawer to remove the coins.

APPRAISER: Sure.

Okay.

Well, it's a very fascinating piece.

Very attractive.

Uh, very desirable.

It has a cross-collectivity.

It's a figural cat, which are very popular.

It's a gumball machine, trade stimulator, and it's also a lottery machine.

It dispenses the ticket.

Have you ever had it appraised before?

GUEST: I had one gentleman offer me up to $5,000 for it.

APPRAISER: It could possibly bring about triple that.

Uh, so an auction estimate on this piece would be roughly $10,000 to $15,000.

And it could bring more.

GUEST: Wow.

Well, I'm glad I didn't take his offer, then.

(laughing) APPRAISER: I think so.

GUEST: I used to be afraid of it when I was a little girl, till I found out there was gum in it.

(chuckles)