Recently there have been a number of Ideale saddles showing up on eBay which exhibit date codes on the underside that post date the Tron-Berthet (closed in the mid 80s) production from France . My searching of the archives produced the Dutch company of Lepper as a possible post Ideale producer of the saddles and another source said that they might have been produced under license by yet another company outside of Europe. Interestingly, one of the current auctions on eBay shows a "Columbia" model "Made in France" with embossing on one side stating "Licence Christol" and having a date code (?) on the underside of 93. Dirk Feeken posted something like this a year or two ago saying "French Desigh".
http://www.listingfactoryhost.com/
The others, shown in the following links, would have had an attached metal "Ideale" badge on the rear during the T-B production time but these have an embossed "Ideale" into the leather.
Apr 95 on underside. Saying "Made in France" on the side stamp.
And
June 96 on underside. Saying "French Design" on the side stamp.
Does anyone have any new information regarding this and who made them and where?
Jay "Idealely looking for answers" Dubiel Halifax, VA USA