Miracles of miracles I actually managed to get my computer to bring up the photo of Joel's mystery seat lug.
It is clearly of French origin as this type of nozzle cut design is found on quite a lot of older, quality French frames.. and I think it dates from the late 30s into the 40s due to the spigots on either side of the lug onto which the top-eyes were located and then brazed. The letters "AG" cast into the side may well identify the manufacturer - did for instance Gargatte of bottom-bracket shell fame, ever cast lugs? Did his first name begin with "A"? The other possibility for the "AG" could be an abbreviation for the words "arriere gauche" or "left-hand side". If you imagine this lug built into a frame and you were looking along the frame from the head-tube end, this "AG" would appear on the L/H side, of the seat lug. However I reckon that that explanation is stretching academia too thinly.
I had hoped the "AG" would be a builder's initials, but these letters appear to be cast in rather than stamped or punched. So why would I have been happy?
Well... it's a long story. One of those cloudless vivid blue sky days, just vapour trails of white criss-crossing the blue, the smell of burning lavender filling the nostrils.. and vineyards full of ripening Syrah (Shiraz) grapes stretching away as far as the horizonof Provence, my eye caught a glimpse of green, linear green in shape, a bike frame.. possibly a Helyett... etc etc.. you know the rest.
well the frame wasn't a Helyett...no head-badge holes.. and the green slightly more turquoise than Anquetil's deep flam green..but what a frame it was.. and is. Head-lugs to die for, with large swirls and a huge central spearpoint with its triangular cut=out., a large window at each side of the cheek of the lug, a fork crown with long tangs cast in on both the inner and outer faces of the blades, a Gargatte bracket.. a pair of Oscar Egg rear drop-outs and all the braze-ons for the Super Champion gear and a pair of the most slender and elegant double-taper seat stays that I have ever seen, finishing in the smallest of refined arrow heads at the seat-lug
Not a transfer to be seen, nor a badge...nor frame number...just the neatest of French tricolor "ribbons" placed diagonally across the top-eyes, and two more circular bands around the seat-tube itself.... and Oh! of course, lest I forget, as I remember that happy day last summer... the letters"AG" punched.(.or were they cast?) into the L/H side of the seat lug - a seat lug identical in every way to Joel's.
I had identified the frame as being very similar to the one being ridden by Wim Van Est when he plunged down the ravine (Picture of the Day some time ago, I think) but on examination I noticed that the head transfer on Wim's frame, a Charles Garin, just failed to cover the presence of two drill holes for a badge. So what make of frame was that.. if mot really a Garin?
Now.. I have a mid-30s Helyett with very similar, but not identical lugs, but drill holes,, and a beautiful enamelled badge..
So I'm feeling a bit deflated now.. and will have to stop my search for a builder with the initials "AG".. But there again there was a company based in Terrenoire, not far from St Etienne, the legendary home of the French cycle industry, that made fork-crowns, and fork-ends.. and it was called "LG"...
Norris Lockley, Settle, UK..."a la recherche du temps perdu"