Alex noted a few days ago that although BARRA frames were craftsman-made while CAMINARGENT frames were mass-produced, the latter appear to fetch far better prices at auction than the former..
I reckon that the higher price could just be down to the idiosyncracy of the Caminargent frame, its weird tubes and Jules-Verne Around-the-World-in-Eighty-Days art nouveau cast lugs. There was never anything loike it before and there has never been anything like it since..and there probably never ever will be.
Take the BARRA frames..they were sheer triumphs of craftsmanship when they were first made..nothing like them before...undeniably beautiful....then along came Andre Sabliere in the late 70s and Patrick Leclerc in the late 80s..and Misotosis ( I think that was the name)..al French builders..And now we have hundreds of thousands of aluminium alloy frames fromTaiwan, China. Italy, Brazil, Russia..and beautifully welded (OK by TIG not oxy-acetylene) ones with polished beads, ovalised tubes..so many people have grown blase about this type of frame...but not the querky Caminargent.
The other factor that might play in the favour of Caminde's design is that they are not known to break as often as BARRAs..although I suspect that very many have. Show me a Barra..and show me the cracks. I have been offered at least twenty BARRAs and everyone was in need of welding.
Just a few thoughts..
Norris Lockley
Settle UK