PENNSYLVANIA MOWER - how old is it?
My father has just become the custodian of this Ball Bearing Pennsylvania Mower.
Looking online it seems Supplee Hardware introduced a Ball bearing model in 1900, and from what I read a third to half a century later, mowers of similar designs were still being produced.
It would be good to have any info on how to date it, most catalogue advertisements don't show the box or plate.
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The earliest ref. to the "PQ…
The earliest ref. to the "PQ" - Pennsylvania Quality logo is on Google books in 1914.
Dad has started restoring…
Dad has started restoring the Pennsylvania; the design looks the same as the one owned by John B. as at the AGM in 2015, complete with transfers.
That one I see has "L. & C. L. L." for Lloyd's & Co. Letchworth Ltd on the label. But this could be "Badge Engineering" as ours is a USA Built one, as it is on the gear cover cast in intaglio.
Plus it was Blue originally, my theory is it came over from the USA blue and Lloyds (founded 1920 in Letchworth) painted it green and put the transfers on (as John B's example)
The other myth is that a lot of collectors have told me that the cast "PQ" for Pennsylvania Quality was only on British built models, this too is blown out the water from the old advertisements.
The machine in this…
The machine in this catalogue is very similar - 1922 - Beckert's seeds - Biodiversity Heritage Library