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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Multum in Parvo date ?

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This is my 6" Greens Multum in Pavo. I know very little is known about dates for Greens mowers and the club has slowly been working out dating from machines that are surviving either in the OLC or Museums etc. I know that the dating for Silens Messors is fairly accurate now and Clive is able to date most. However I haven't ever entered into dating Multum in Parvos and wondered whether anyone has any clue as to the date of mine : 15392. To me this number seems very low but I expect someone will correct me. 
Many thanks.

Clive1997 Fri, 25/06/2021

We do not have so much information on Multums as we do on Silens Messors, but from what I know I would have a stab at 1900 to 1905.

Remember they started production in 1882 & from sales figures for 1896 roughly speaking SM's 10,000pa compared with MP's only 1000pa.

All a bit of conjecture, I will check some original sales receipts we have, not sure if any show MP numbers.

stonethemows Sat, 26/06/2021

For what it's worth the machine I am currently ' curating ', also a 6", is number 17353. It was restored about twenty years ago by another Club member; at the time he suggested a date c. 1898/1900. However at that time I think fewer examples were known and dating was probably even more speculative than now. 

Messorestore Sat, 26/06/2021

Many thanks Clive and Colin. If either of you have any sales receipts with numbers that would be very useful.

Clive1997 Sun, 27/06/2021

Unable to find any sales receipts that quote serial numbers for Multums, only SM's & New Centuries.

In brochures Greens often gave illustrations showing a serial number on the mowers handle, we feel that these usually fell in roughly with the range on numbers being used around the date of publication, although printing blocks were not updated every year so the same image often used for a few years. That said a rough analysis from the numbers below give an average sales rate of 750 a year for the first 15yrs of production & 620 a year for the next 26years. 

As said this is a very rough calculation, but I believe gives us an idea.

1882    Serial number  1

1897                             11320

1910                             20323

1914                             25322

1923                             27405 

So your serial number 15392 divided by say 700 = 22+1882 = 1904

(although my Maths CSE was over 50yrs ago!!)

Messorestore Sun, 27/06/2021

Many thanks  Clive. I wasn't expecting a pin point accurate date but that is excellent in so far as it tells me it was early twentieth Century.