Hi Hugh, I posted three more photos of my Mercier on my blog, including one of the seat stay cap. It is a little bit fuzzy, but it is possible to see the M and crown. I have also included a photo of the decal on the seat tube and the shot of the fork crown.
Here is a link: http://petersclassicwheels.blogspot.com/
I would like to know as much as I can about Mercier, especially the final days. I have never seen any brochures that include our later frames. I purchased a Mercier professional frameset in 1972. I wish that I still had it and I have been searching for a similar one for a long time.
I hope that this helps.
Kind regards, Peter Rogers
Barrie, Ontario, Canada
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From: "Hugh Thornton" <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 8:31 AM
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame
> Wow! Thanks Norris. How do you unearth all this good stuff?
>
> I have this frame like Leon's (frame A) and I have another 1977 Mercier
> frame (frame B, which is the pattern for the decals) and there is no
> comparison in workmanship. Frame A has beautifully filed lugs, whereas
> frame B - 531 butted, hand made, Service Des Courses, but regular
> Mercier-inscribed seatstay top caps and pointy fork and stay ends - is not
> built with the same degree of hand finishing.
>
> But my later frame (frame C) has the same seatstay top eyes as frame A and
> a similar degree of hand finishing, but the fork and stay ends at the
> dropouts are pointy. It is not very easy to make out the seatstay caps on
> Peter's frame so it might be helpful if he could say whether they are the
> same as Leon's.
>
> At least by 1977, the Services Des Courses headbadge was thin aluminum (or
> thick foil) in a shield shape in which the frame number is impressed. I
> don't know if the badge you refer to was used on other models until the
> crown came along.
>
> The only thing is that Leon's and my frames have a racing number tab and a
> serious racer is more concerned with performance than super hand fnishing,
> so if our frames are the higher quality Prestige range, they would appear
> to be built for "poseurs" rather than "coureurs".
>
> Norris - is there any way you can copy that article you referred to and
> send a copy or stick it on flickr? Would be much appreciated.
>
> Leon - does your frame look like it has beautifully hand-filed lugs too?
>
> Hugh Thornton
> Cheshire, England
>
> --- On Fri, 25/6/10, Norris Lockley <nlockley73@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Norris Lockley <nlockley73@gmail.com>
> Subject: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Date: Friday, 25 June, 2010, 12:56
>
>
> I have just managed to unearth a few more snippets of relevant information
> about Mercier's range of frames.
>
> In September 1975, the firm announced that all it's frame built of
> Reynolds
> 531 tubing would have engraved top-eyes, and a Cinelli crown, also
> engraved.
>
> In September 1977 the firm announced that it was introducing a whole new
> concept to its top-end-frame - the PRESTIGE range., this being in addition
> to the COMPETITION range that included the Tour de France, Tour du Monde.
> Le
> Contre-la-Montre modles. The article making this announcement did not
> state
> whether the PRESTIGE range produced custom models only..but did boast of
> its
> 'exceptionelle facture artisanale' ie the range's exceptional
> craftsmanship., the limiting of the number of frames produced in the range
> and the fact that each frame would receive its own individual
> frame-number.
>
> The original Mercier presssed aluminium slightly art-deco headbadge with
> the
> frame-number stamped into the lower panel seems to have been replaced in
> the
> very early 80s by a very stylised 'M' with a coronet above.
>
> The original Mercier headbadges turn up frequently on French eBay on one
> of
> its collectors sites:
>
> http://www.ebay.fr/
>
> Once into that main site enter 'plaques de velo' in the search engine.
>
> Good hunting
>
> Norris Lockley
>
> Settle UK