It just had to happen sooner or later — a Queen Victoria Bust with the original paint untouched. Now at long last we can pass along this important interesting information as to the accurate colorings of this great bust type bank.

Speaking of the bank as a ‘great bust type’ brings us to the point that after careful consideration the Queen Victoria is probably the top ranking bust type mechanical. It has everything going for it. It is a representation of an actual person, a Queen no less! It is historical, commemorating a special event, and it has fine identification cast on three sides of the bank. What more could one ask for in a bust type mechanical. Also it’s well to mention that the operation is unique — a coin dropped into the crown causing the eyes to move up and down several times, due to the weight of the coin and the counter balancing of the eyes. The heavy English penny imparts the best action and the bank was made to operate with this particular coin. Two banks with similar action are Bill E. Grin and Darky Bust (Tin), but neither is the same action as the Queen Victoria.

The colors of this important mechanical are as follows: Her face, ears and neck are a flesh color, and she has black hair and eyebrows. Her lips are red and cheeks are tinted red. Her eyes are light tan with black pupils. The crown is gold, as is a sort of cloth-like effect draped under the crown. She wears a rather heavy five strand multiple type gold necklace and rather sizeable loop type gold earrings. The v-shaped area between the necklace and her robe or whatever is light red. The rest of her robe like apparel is dark blue. The pendant or watch on her left front shoulder area is gold with a red bow. The three sections of lettering, dates, and so on are all gold. The perforated base plate is finished in what the English call maroon — or as we know it a japanned type finish. Figure 2 shows the back of the bank and the large section of her snood or hair covering — this is an orange-red and drapes down over the back of her shoulders. Where paint chipping has occurred, it reveals a flesh color (same as face) undercoat beneath the orange-red. Needless to say, the variety of colors used on the Queen add considerably to the appearance of this fine mechanical.

As shown in Figure 1, the inscription across the front reads: ‘JUBILEE. 1887 — GOD SAVE THE QUEEN’. On her right side: ‘PATENT No. 14197’. Across her back, Figure 2: ‘BORN MAY 24^th 1819 — CROWNED JUNE 20^th 1837 — MARRIED FEBY 10^th 1840’.

Other information on the Queen Victoria has appeared in HOBBIES, November 1974.

The bank shown is one of the outstanding recent additions to the fine extensive collection of Ed Mosler.

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