This has interested me for years.
I, too, am no closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the Victa 14" Reel Mower.

I have collected what I believe to be all the Victa 14" advertisements from
the Sydney Morning Herald. Mervyn advertised these little machines not infrequently.

Surprisingly, the earliest ad. dates to 17 March, 1951!
Richardson advertised about a dozen times that year for this machine.

In 1952 the advertising became more frequent and the price varied greatly,
from 57 pound up to 75 pound. I have only ever found one illustrated advertisement,
and it comes from March of 1952:-

[Linked Image]

Richardson continued to advertise these machines up to March of 1953,
with ads.for the 14" and his Rotomo appearing on the same page (but not together).

In the next post I will detail the advertising chronology.