Reconstruction of an 1897 Berger Basket Case

As Purchased

After Restoration

This was a fairly extensive restoration project that was completed in the mid 1980s. I had begun to write an article about it for one of the coin-op collector magazines of the time, but the magazine closed its doors before it was finished. I’ve probably forgotten a lot of details of the restoration, but that will help keep the story to a reasonable length. It was an interesting project because it went beyond the scope of a normal slot machine restoration and required the re-creation of many missing and broken parts. In the end it turned out to be a beautiful piece that is still part of my collection.

This restoration project predates digital photography, so the few pre-restoration pictures that I have were taken with a film camera and the prints scanned. The quality of the film images is poor, and I wish I had been more thoughtful about documenting things in the past. Thankfully I was able to retake all of the post-restoration photos (20 plus years later) with better lighting and a better camera.

I should note that the two framed cards above the handle appear to be some generic reprints and are probably not correct for this machine.… Read the rest