Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
From my experience with older leather saddles, you’ll be able to make that saddle look much better with dubbin or Proofide, but it won’t last long if you ride on it. It’ll tear across the nose or at the rivets at the back. I can’t tell what it is from the pics but you may wish to make that one look presentable for originality reasons and get another, newer leather saddle for actually riding on. There are plenty of old Wrights saddles out there for far less than Brooks go for.
There was a bit of chat in the other thread about the frame date and the use of the head clip. They were largely obsolete by the 1940s and it was rare to see them on frames in the 1940s or later. That said, one or two frame builders did persevere with them into the 1950s (eg Parkes). I don’t know exactly why they did this, either they had a stash of parts or some owners specifically asking for them? It would have been something that looked quite old fashioned on your bike. Who knows.
There was a bit of chat in the other thread about the frame date and the use of the head clip. They were largely obsolete by the 1940s and it was rare to see them on frames in the 1940s or later. That said, one or two frame builders did persevere with them into the 1950s (eg Parkes). I don’t know exactly why they did this, either they had a stash of parts or some owners specifically asking for them? It would have been something that looked quite old fashioned on your bike. Who knows.
