Brief description
A collection of objects relating to Mervyn Victor Richardson and the Victa company. It includes lawnmowers, the first dating from 1953, as well as archival material and promotional material such as signs and pamphlets.Notes
Parts of this collection are digitised and available on the Powerhouse Museum website.Significance
Mervyn Victor Richardson developed the Victa rotary lawn-mower in August 1952. It was not the first rotary lawn-mower ever developed, but it was cheaper, lighter and easier to use than the mowers that came before. Mervyn advertised his new mowers and sold them from his home. Demand for the mowers was high with the growth of post-war suburbia. Soon Mervyn had to expand the business to a new location and Victa Mowers Pty Ltd was born. From the early days Victa effectively used marketing to promote and sell its mowers. It pioneered TV advertising in Australia, using celebrity endorsements and combining them with extensive newspaper and print media campaigns. Victa set up a network of distributors and trained them in promotion and sales. By 2002, after almost 50 years of operation, 6.5 million Victa mowers had been sold in 30 countries around the world. This collection of artefacts and objects includes a number of Victa lawnmowers including the first Victa mower. It also contains photographs, publicity material, catalogues and videos of TV advertisements.Data time period: 1953 to 2008
Spatial Coverage And Location
text: New South Wales, Australia
Subjects
Archives |
Australian product design |
Catalogues |
Gardening |
Lawnmowers |
Mervyn Victor Richardson |
Photographs |
Signs |
Victa |
suburban life |
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Identifiers
- Local : 2033
- URI : www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=Victa_Lawnmower
