I am really grateful to Edward Brooks for his enquiry about the origin of Gloria brakes. I have been riding with various models of these brakes for decades on a variety of Italian and French bikes...and had always assumed that they were in fact Italian..and from the Gloria factory. Only recently I managed to find a copy of the official brochure for the 1951 Tour de France in impeccable condition. It really is a treasure-trove of adverts. About the same time I had bought from the owner of the second -hand shop next to the cafe in Menetreol-sous- Sancerre where I often take the odd glass of Sancerre white, an as-yet-unseen "velo de course, Monsieur...impeccable..et ancien" I felt compelled to buy something from him because he kept buying me glasses of white Sancerre. The bike turned out to be "ancien", not particularly "impeccable"..but very rare. It was a late40s/early 50s "A.Arliguie" racing bike just like those that graced the sepia pages of "Le Miroir de Cyclisme" back in those times. I had never seen an "Arliguie" but I had seen pictures of coureurs with the name "Arliguie" sewn onto the fronts of their "maillots"
it was 100% original except for the rear mech. The brakes,I thought, were a mixture of Lam stirrups and Alp/CLB levers...but a rubbing of the thumb over the stirrup arms exposed the name "Iseran".. Browsing through the 1951 T-d-F brochure later that evening I stumbled across an advert for "Gloria" brakes, showing the "honking style" lever, and listing the names of the other brands within the manuafcturer's range. They included as well as Gloria, "Tour de France", "Geny", "Blocus" and..."Iseran". The manufacturer of all these brands was Ets. A.Lambert et F.Cagnon, of 10, Chemin de Montbrillant, Lyon.
The better known "LAM" brakes were made " Henri Lamarque" at his factory at 27 rue des Prairies , Paris.
As for the Gnutti splined cranks - these really were "de rigueur" among the fand of Italian equipemnt in the early 50s, although I cannot recall seeing any of the pros using them. Even the Italians were using TA "Adapter" type set-ups I used the cottered variety in 1951/52 and moved onto a pair of splined cranks in 53...Maybe they were available earlier but I wouldn't have been able to afford them.
Norris Lockley..Settle UK