Doubting Dave wrote:
> Wait a minute. Am I the only one who noticed that MR. A. CINELLI HIMSELF
> CHOOSE A FAKE OVER THE REAL BADGES?? Hello, Hello?
> If the world's number one expert on all things Cinelli can't tell the
> difference between his own work and a FAKE,,,,,,,,,??????? Yikes! There must
> be
> some typographical error or something.
> Steven- Are you 100% that you translated Mr. Cinelli's comment correctly?
> Why/How did he choose a Fake!?
> What does this say about other bicycle "experts"?!........Now it dawns on me
> what the old addage of "taking things with a grain of salt" was all about.
You are out of line here!
Andrea Cinelli as the son of Cino Cinelli and raised in the company, is indeed about as close as you can get to the "real" thing in Cinelli matters as is possible, but the badges are not "his" work. Never were. For that matter they weren't made by Cino either. They were made by a badge maker from Milan. In judging the badges, the sole true expert would therefore need to be the die maker who designed it.
Andrea's complete answer was abridged somewhat both by me and Dennis, however not in any significant way. As stated by Dennis, Andrea writes very clearly that he solely rules out the two smaller ones being originals (they were confirmed to be fakes.) For all the others, he is non-committal and with good reason. He states that there are certain ill-visible features that would seem to point one way or another for most of the others, but that closer inspection would be needed. He also states that his answer is based upon comparison to the originals that he still has in his possession (all of which are from the last production run!) So, his judgement was not 'wrong' at all.
There is no need for a grain of salt approach. I was actually quite impressed that Andrea was even willing to make an attempt at recognition of the fakes. He then firmly stated that two were assuredly fakes (they were) and others dubious. For somebody to go out on a limb and take a stab in a situation where he has everything to lose and nothing to gain is noteworthy. If anything, I believe his reputation as an expert can only have been strengthened in this matter.
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ