This page features a replica which is so good, that only someone who had access to Hetchin's sales ledgers would know it is not genuine.
For the record, it bears the serial number H2757. If this were a genuine Hetchins number, that would make it a 1962 frame, the seven hundred and fifty-seventh made that year. Alf would have been turning handsprings if he had sold that many frames in 1962. The serial number is presumably a valid one for whoever made the frame and not an attempt to duplicate a valid Hetchins number.
Unlike replicas seen to date, this one gets the details right. No over-elaboration typical of many replicas, no crudely mismatched chainstays and bb shells, no ugly proportions, not a farago of bits never intended to be together on one frame. Whoever brazed this one did his homework and accurately duplicated the details (not too difficult with lazer-cut lugs these days). Direct inspection of the physical evidence might not detect that this is a replica.
The frame is a replica of the Earls Court design made for Hyman in 1948 and reprised as a one-off special order in 2005. That's how I know that this one is a replica; because Hetchins only ever made two of this particular model, and I happen to know their serial numbers and their whereabouts.
The photos here are courtesy of the current owner, Richard Cary-Clarke. He reports that it rides beautifully. And why not? The ones it was copied from do, too.
So, on to the physical evidence: the frame first surfaced in candy apple red, as below.
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