> I thought I would bring this recently closed auction to the attention of > the List as it sums up so adequately the blind faith that many collectors > place on a name or a transfer..this blindness shutting their intellect off > from any reason or argument. > > The bike in question - Item No 120367568033 - is a very tatty lady's > berceau type twin-lateral framed cycle. OK so the head lugs are relatively > decorative - I think that they are Oscar Egg ones or possibly Nervex Serie > Legere... but the frame is just a standard factory-built one, typical of hundreds > of thousands still in use in France. > > Had this bike been a Gitane or a Mercier, or a Terrot or anyone of a > couple of hundred brands that sold this type of machine during a forty > year post WWII period, it would have fetched no more than 40 euros - TOPS. > > So much for the magic of the Singer name.
Norris,
When new, would the bike have cost more, due to having been sold by Alex Singer's shop? In fact, the question I have is this: why would one go to Alex Singer for a factory build frame? Is it that, within a certain stratum of society, one would only go to a "high class" shop such as Singer's?
Cheers,
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)