Hello
ODK History Lovers
The
Cornstalk was a
North American handmower that sold in Australia for about three
decades - the
1910s-1930s. It was a not-extraordinary plain-bearing hand mower
offered at times in
10 inch, 12 inch and 14 inch sizes. It was an entry-level job.
James Ricci's reference book
Hand, Horse, and Motor reminds all gardening equipment
researchers about the difficulty in identifying the actual makers of many early
lawnmowers.
'Branding' was a common practice of many mower makers - if you had the
right money and the right quantity, a manufacturer was more than happy to cast your
brand name on the machine. Therein lies the problem of identification.
I am convinced that
Cornstalk was a
Store Brand of the great Sydney Department
Store
Nock & Kirby [N&K]. North American collectors refer to store brands as 'Hardware
Brands' - and for good reason.
In the early days, N&K used the slogan
'The Good Value Ironmongers' [
ironmonger being
the British equivalent to the North American
hardware]. Australia would later adopt
the American name for a simple reason - Americans did hardware very well here!
By the 1920s, N&K morphed into something more than a hardware - a 'universal
provider' or what we call today Department Stores. In the 1920s, the Cornstalk
was still presented as an entry-level lawnmower.
The best evidence that Cornstalk was a
N&K store brand came when I realized
that other products sold by N&K were also branded as Cornstalk in the 1930s -
ice chests and garden hoses.
So, who made them? Well, I guess, various companies.
I recently learned the
Cornstalk mower was made in
North America.
TO BE CONTINUED ...