OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Company Histories SCOTT BONNAR - Depression Ware Products - c1930s

Hello ODK History Lovers

The Scott Bonnar Company sold more than lawnmowers. For example, the first business of the company
was low pressure brassware, and in the first three years of the company, it would also be oxy and
arc welding. Lawnmowers would only start to play a role in the fourth year, that is, 1923.

By about 1927, I guess, lawnmowers became the first product line, with brassware second, and then
other products - some seemingly 'out of character' for the firm.

In this post I would like to address what I call Scott Bonnar's 'Depression Ware' products.
These are the lesser known products that the Company sold in the 1930s, during the Australian
Great Depression - part of the world-wide economic aftershock of the 1929 collapse of the American
economy. These were hard times and lawnmower sales were less than expected, particularly in the
early '30s when the Depression was at its peak. Signs of recovery began from about the mid-thirties.

Scott Bonnar started to manufacture fill-in products to aid the company's bottom line. The firm's
brassware line, named ESBE (after Scott Bonnar's initials 'S' & 'B') was extended to include rotary
pumps and a kitchen bean slicer. In his 1971 Memoirs, Malcolm Bonnar said this about those days:-



Malcolm's comments reflect the reality of the events of the thirties. The company moved from the
Depression, to Promise, and then Despair; with the intervention of that second, terrible World War.

I have little newsprint records for the Esbe Rotary pumps; but I think this is because these were
hardware items that would have been advertised in the Esbe Catalogues the Company produced for
retailers. Advertisements would have also appeared in Hardware catalogues of the day. In any case,
I do not doubt Malcom's words here that they sold well.

The Esbe Bean Slicers - a kitchen product - was advertised more widely in newsprint, and I will
discuss them in the next part. To give you the idea of what these products looked like, here is
a photograph from member Geoff N, the grandson of Scott Bonnar Factory Manager, Sid Bowditch:-



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO - The ESBE Bean Slicer

In the 'good old days' kitchen products were not throw-away items. The Esbe Bean Slicer was a
quality product that had replaceable parts, and the blades could be re-sharpened.

These were sold in volume and advertised widely. I'm sure many would survive to this day, and
be in perfect running order. I know the Powerhouse Museum has one in its collection, but it has
wrongly been identified as being of English manufacture:-


http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=259910

Here are some typical newsprint advertisements from SA newspapers. Note how one is named the
Esbe 'Centenary' Bean Slicer, to commemorate South Australia's Centenary celebrations of 1936.





I have no doubt that the origin or idea for this product came from Mr. Scott Bonnar himself.
I have discussed in these History Forums his first invention, a Green Feed Cutter, designed to
cut grasses, vegetable and fruit scraps for feeding poultry. This bean slicer cut a vegetable
for the kitchen table.

In a letter book that survives as part of the Bonnar Collection at the State Library of South
Australia, Malcolm Bonnar discusses a sales trip (in his abbreviated style) to Western Australia
in 1932. The context is a visit to Boans, a well-known Perth department Store:-



This great story also reveals a theme in Scott Bonnar's history - patriotism. Right from the
earliest days, the Scott Bonnar Company promoted pride in being Australian-made. If a local
product was as good or better, then Australians should support the local product. I might add,
Scott Bonnar's first lawnmower (not a converted import) was the Queen City. The 'Queen City'
was no city half way round the world from Australia; it was, however, a city named after a Queen.

The city was ... Adelaide, the home of the great Australian firm, Scott Bonnar.

The rest is history.
------------------------------------------------
JACK

ESBE BEAN SLICER
LIGHTNING Green Feed Cutter



Would you like to comment on this article?
Simply create a new topic in the Old Soap Box HERE.