Regarding the maker of Serial 1736, a number of L'Epée movements had
NICOLE A GENEVE stamped on the base of the bedplate.  Serials 7858,
8267, 10349, 10136, 12942, 16295, 17101 and 17338 all did.  Serial
7858, a key-wind movement, had a long, narrow tune sheet with no
maker's name but with NICOLE A GENEVE in a lozenge-shaped border
impressed on the bedplate.  The case is typical of L'Epée, with an end
flap that has a pin which secures it in place when the lid is closed.
The long, narrow tune sheet is typical of agent Alliez et Berguer,
which Bulleid illustrated in his tune sheet book TSB 74 with the
initials AB at the bottom center; but this version does not seem to
have those initials.  The Bulleid L'Epée dating chart has two date
lines, one starting 1840 and the other 1880.

Serial 17338 is a lever-wind movement, which also lies on Bulleid's
first date line, circa 1861.  Its stamp is quite different from that
noted above in its lozenge border.  The serial numbers are almost
certainly those for L'Epée, not Nicole.  The two dated examples,
coupled with the other L'Epée examples carrying Nicole references, seem
to indicate about a ten-year period of supply of movements either from
Nicole to L'Epée or vice versa. The reason is unknown but, if the
conclusion is correct, the Nicole name must have been of customer value
to both L'Epée and Nicole.

The late Lynn Wright believed that the supply was from L'Epée to
Nicole, based on the fact that L'Epée used steel governor "end-stones."
There were similarities in the blanks used by both L'Epée and Nicole
about this time. However, Bulleid pointed out that it is generally
accepted that these musical boxes came onto the second-hand market and
that the unusual Nicole stamp was added.  The few that have been
identified are all of Nicole quality; but Nicole used cast iron
bedplates and these were brass; also, Nicole track widths were
0.017inches or less and these were 0.018inches.  The mystery has yet to
be resolved, the period from 1850 to 1886, if correct, being so long.

So, is serial 1736 a forgery?  Possibly not. but it precedes Bulleid's
earliest recorded date of 1840.  Extrapolation (always full of errors)
would give a date of about 1835.  It is certainly not for Françoise
Nicole who did not use serial numbers and who usually had the graphic
pattern on the cylinder surface (often incorrectly called a rigid
notation pattern).

Paul Bellamy