Comet Ball Junior Table

The Comet Ball Junior Table, manufactured by the Field Manufacturing Corporation of Peoria, Illinois in February 1932, is a purely mechanical pin table from the very dawn of the commercial pinball era. It is essentially the company's 1932 counter game 'Golden Comet Ball' fitted with detachable legs - the manufacturer advertised that the legs converted the countertop version into a small pin table, a 'junior table'. Fittingly, the playfields of both versions carry the same words: 'Golden Comet Ball'.

The game was made in two models: one offering 5 balls for 1 cent, the other 10 balls for 5 cents - penny-and-nickel pricing that reflects the industry's Depression-era focus on affordable entertainment. The machine itself is a handsome piece, with a solid walnut cabinet advertised at 24 inches long, 16 inches wide, and 36 inches high on its legs, weighing 34 pounds.

One note for researchers: the game may be incorrectly identified as 'Comet Ball Jr.' in other resources - a natural mistake, since 'Junior' typically denoted the legless version of a game rather than the other way around. As an early 1932 pin table from a short-lived manufacturer, it is an intriguing artifact from pinball's formative first years.