For some reason, French component manufacturers had a liking for English names i.e. White Star and VeryBest. There was also a French saddle called Indian, although I guess that word might be the same in French. Not sure if Indian refers to native Americans or to residents of India. Stronglight and Super Champion are other English-sounding components and even Simplex sounds somewhat English.
As Jay and I were discussing offlist, Elaedy and Nortex and maybe some others were made by Tron & Berthet, the makers of Ideale. In fact, if you change the final "Y" to and "I", then Elaedy(i) is Ideale spelled backwards. I think BIM must have been a T & B brand also, as one sees model 39's marked as either Ideale or BIM. Jay has some catalogs which seem to indicate that Elaedy was a second tier line and Nortex third tier. Oddly, I recently saw one model offfered on eBay, mod 63 or some such, both in Ideale and Elaedy versions. I don't know if there was a difference in quality or original price between the two.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Jay Dubiel <zoomdog@pure.net>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Obscure French leather saddles
\r?\n> To: "classicrendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
\r?\n> Date: Monday, April 27, 2009, 10:36 AM
\r?\n> OK Dale, I got curious and spent 15 minutes on eBay France
\r?\n> compiling what is likely a start to the list of French
\r?\n> saddle Marquees. Some of those found had multiple
\r?\n> Styles/Models.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> UNIC, WOLBER, DURABLE, VERYBEST, DACTYL, LION, NORTEX,
\r?\n> ELAEDY, BROWN, HENRI GAUTHIER, ROULVIT, GARFORD, LINDA,
\r?\n> WHITE STAR, J. FOLLIS, LAMPLUGH, MEILLEUR, G.E.S-EIBAR,
\r?\n> DAAL, BIM, ECCO, RUSCH, FRANCEIX, PETIT BRETON, AND
\r?\n> EXCELSIOR...
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Kind of mind boggling and I'm sure some Listmembers
\r?\n> could add to it.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Jay...riding the Ideale saddle for me...Dubiel
\r?\n> Halifax, VA USA