– Bicycling News, 1887
The company name was Tacagni, Holt & Co, and they built ‘Tac’ high-wheelers and ‘Tac’ safeties at 86 Gresham Road, Brixton, London, described as the ‘Tac Cycle Works.’ By 1889, they had moved to a more prominent location around the corner, at 313 Coldharbour Lane. Their range now included the ‘Tac’ Diamond Safety and ‘Tac’ tricycle.
From 1891, A. Breese joined J. C. P. Tacagni and they offered a wide range of machines, including the ‘Red Cross’ and ‘Tacross.’ The ‘Red Cross’ had an open bottom bracket. They had now relocated to 33 & 34 Great Arthur Street, London. These premises, which they called the ‘Tacross Cycle Works,’ were closer to central London. At the bottom of their catalogue pages, they proclaimed:
REMOVED FROM BRIXTON.
As you can see here, for the 1891 catalogue presented a wide selection of machines by including models from previous years. With cycle designs evolving so rapidly at the turn of the final decade of the 19th century most cycle companies were left with old stock. This was not a serious problem for them, as English companies always had a ready market for exports.
A safety bicycle with curved seat tube was a short-lived design, common only in 1890-91. In evolutionary terms, it is placed between the later styles of crossframe and the first diamond frames. As the 1891 TAC catalogue includes the company’s previous models, it has allowed me to use their range of models to illustrate the four main design stages between 1886 and 1891. After that came the diamond frame with upward sloping top tube and finally, in 1895, the diamond frame with horizontal top tube, the design that remained dominant for the next 7 decades.
