Hi Phil,
The 1954/5 Hobdays Cycle Accessories Catalogue lists the following Bluemels mudguards in cellluloid (no mention of plastic):
Lightweight Featherweight Noweight Club Special (Listed as "New", and not appearing in the 1952/3 catalogue. I don't have the 1953/4 edition, so I can't say exactly when they first appeared).
The Lightweight and Featherweight were avaialble in white, and the other two could also be had in black with a white patch.
In alloy, the models available are:
Tour de France Continental The 1952 Brown Brothers Catalogue also lists the Airweight model
The 1959 Beaumont catalogue lists the following, again mentioning only celluloid and not plastic:
Lightweight Noweight Club Special
Coloured guards were available by now:
Lightweight: Black, White, "Colours" (not specified) or transparent (presumably so you could see what was sticking to the underside of the guards?...) Transparent guards were also available at times in the 1930's, though why anyone would want them in a wet and muddy climate beats me.
Noweight: Black, White, Red, Light Green or Oxford Blue.
Club Special: Black, White, Red, Light Green, Blue Pearl, Green Pearl, Gold, Ice Blue, Yellow, Silver Grey, Pink, Oxford Blue. These were also available to the trade in a mixed Specila Pack of 12 pairs (count them - 13!!) of Red, Ice Blue, Oxford Blue, Green, Yellow, Silver Grey, Orange, Magenta (Pink by another name?), Gold Pearl, Blue Pearl, Green Pearl, Yellow Pearl and Grey Pearl.
In alloy, the models available are:
Tour de France Airweight Continental
A late 50's Brown Brothers catalogue, (exact date not established) lists the above models in celluloid (although plastic is specified for other makes), and also lists the following celluloid guards:
Gold Medal in Black, White, Red or Ice Blue. These are described as "Plain deep 'U' section". This model does not appear in a Bluemels whole page advertisement for mudguards in "Cycling" of November 14, 1957.
In alloy, the models available in this Brown Brothers catalogue are:
Tour de France Airweight Continental
The 1964/5 (according to a handwritten annotation on the front cover, and internal reference to the Resale Prices Act 1964) Brown Brothers catalogue lists the following in PLASTIC:
Club Special Popular Lightweight
The Club Specials are listed in Black, White, Ice Blue or Red, and the other two models were available in these colours, plus Oxford Blue.
In alloy, the models available are:
Tour de France Airweight
I'm afraid that this is as far as I can take it - perhaps someone else can fill in the later years?
Points to bear in mind are that:
1. a particular wholesaler might not have carried the full range available; 2. human error may have crept into the listings; 3. descriptions may not have been updated. For example, were Bluemels still using celluloid for their muguards in the late 50's, or were some or all actually plastic, but still referred to by the term (celluloid) which had been in use for decades? I don't have an answer for this.
Hope this helps!
Neil Foddering Weymouth, England
>From: Phil Sieg <triodelover@comcast.net>
>To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]Bluemels timeline question
>Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:05:46 -0400
>
>I wonder if anyone can point me to resource that will give me the Bluemels
>models that were available in the 1955-1975 time frame and when those
>models first appeared withing that time frame. Specifically, I'm
>interested in the All Rounder, Sprint Veloco and TdF alloy (full version).
>TIA.
>
>
>
>--
>Phil Sieg
>Knoxville, Tennessee