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
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