Hello, Jerry ,Ken, Jay, Leonard
i'm the seller of Ideale leather cover on ebay.
I collect this many years ago from Ideale factory.
they was keeped at factory, some are not past control quality (double
stamped, leather color, scare etc), some are protopype, some have rivet
holes but not mount, some are mount on wrong frame etc and of course some
are just no mount and perfect!
I don't think ideale provided only leather on bicyle shop , but you can
return them on Ideale factory to change leather or frame.
FT change to TB around 1945 but the both coexiste during some years.
FT= Francois Tron?? i don't know probably Norris or Jan can tell it
About price, Ideale saddle 57FT (1st type 1936 called "cretirium des alpes")
is the most rarer and the best Ideale saddle. Ideale 57FT was mount on the
best Herse, Singer, etc bicycle, can be sold for 8000-10000$. With an used
bike from 40's-50's you can made a new paint, new decals, new chrome, polish
aluminium, but one thing you can't refurbished: saddle and saddle logo. So i
understand for a 8000$ value bicycle buy a new leather cover for 500$ is not
sensless. You can't have a new bike without a new saddle. Finaly he value of
the bike is the saddle condition.
And, sorry for that, dollar value is actualy very low. 1$=0.67eur=90yen, for
a japanese or a europeean it's not 500$ but 350$
But other new Ideale saddle i offer is affordable.
Regards
Jaouen BAZIN
Wissous, France