I posed the same question to the Bicycle Museum of America curator. Here is her response (forwarded with permission). Echos Mike Kone's assessment.
Ron Gurth Carmel, IN
"Ron,
Thank you for your e-mail. On the e-bay posting he states: "According to the people of the village it is a well known story that the blacksmith had made this bicycle for his own use." There are no detailed photos on the site.... just "pretty" photos. Parts on this bicycle are definitely not correct and it is well-known in the bicycle world that the first chains such as this were not common between 1856 and 1879. However, one model, discovered in 1906 and presented that year at the Automobile and Cycle Exhibition in Paris, could have been made as early as 1869 by Meyer and Company from a design by the clockmaker Andre Guilmet. Known as the Meyer-Guilmet bicycle, it was donated in 1907 to the conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. Bicycle historians dispute whether this bicycle was develped during this time and I don't even know what it looks like.
Without proper authentication and many more close-up photos.... interesting! The bicycle world is seeing more and more bicycles being passed off as something they absolutely are not. Still, very interesting. I'm surely going to follow this auction to the end.
Thank you!
Annette Thompson Curator The Bicycle Museum of America
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