What a wonderful piece of*craftsmanship showing an intimate knowledge of
what is needed to create an attractive yet functional frame. It's certatnly one of the nicest frames I have seen in a long time.
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Philippe is a brand of frames well-known in many parts of France, but wheth er there is just one Philippe or two remains a matter for conjecture. In my opinion , for what it's worth, there is only one and that is the company s till operating, as they have done for more than 25 years, at Boulevard de l 'Industrie in the beautiful city of Blois, on the river Loire, about one ho ur SW of Paris.
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Currently the company is being forced to follow the carbon and aluminium ro ute, but when I first traded with them in 1984, they produced a range of st eel frames from amateur road type up to top of the range racing and touring models. The firm was one of the first to build high quality wlelded alumin ium frames in the 90s and became better known for building the frames used
by the Castorama team of Cyrille Guimard in 92/93, under Guimard's own*Ma xi-Sports brand. It is thought that Philippe also built the lugless frames
for the Paris-Tours brand that was based just a few kilometres further up t he Loire near the city of Tours. During the 90s and an the new millenium un til carbon monocoques became de rigueur Philippe frames were very popular w ith the cyclo-sportif/audax fraternity.
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Just before Christmas I was bidding on a Philippe frame on French
Ebay. The frame carried the same transfers as Nat's, but was a different animal alto gether - just a middle-of-the-range road frame made from Vitus. The later b eautiful welded alloys come up from time to time and a couple of ex-team bi kes appeared last year. Whether of not the present Philippe had a father who was also a frame-build er before him I do not know, but in the French frame building community it
is highly likely, just as Andre Sabliere's father Charles Sabliere was a ex tremely renowned builder in the Lyon area in the late 40s and 50s.
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Unfortunately the comparison with Herse and Singer has raised its head agai n. When I sued to trade with buiders and wholesalers in Lyon no cyclist eve n mentioned the two Parisien builders. In metropolitain France they are not the builders that every cyclist would list as the best..in fact many cycli sts have probably never heard of them.* This obsession with the likes of
Herse, Singer, Confente, Masi etc. has led to collectors such as French fri end of mine having a couple of sheds full of excellent frames superbly craf ted by regional builders..and some lesser known Parisien ones as well, that he fears he will never sell at the prices they* are*worth.
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IMHO this Philippe frame is as good as and probably better than most herse
or Singers that I have ever seen...it's just got more flair and originality coupled with excellent craftsmanship..a builder at the top of his trade.
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Norris Lockley...Settle UK
). Jetzt dient sie nur noch als "Halter" für die XC LTD-Kettenblätter, aber ich glaube nun, dass die Kristallkugel ihr für 2009 eine schicksalshafte Begegnung mit dem Schrottcontainer auf dem Recyclinghof weissagt ... 
