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@shortclaud
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Interesting selection of 'hetchins' on ebay at moment. Apart from the one discussed above, the other two are interesting for all the wrong reasons. The 1936 frame is only slightly better than a collection of rust held together by paint: it'll need many hundreds of pounds worth of repair work, and after what the poor thing has suffered I would never feel safe on it. It nonetheless seems to be attracting bids of hundreds of pounds with 5 days to go. At least the vendor isn't making light of its negs. Which is more than can be said than the other frame. Am I alone in having the very gravest concerns about this thing? I fear not only that its a fake, but its just plain dangerous. Why a fake? The most obvious is that the curve of the rear stays is wrong, especially the chain stays. Then there is the fact that I've never seen/heard of a Hetchins being built with Nervex lugs. And other details such as on a 'real' curly, the little cable guide that takes the rear mech wire around the bottom bracket is always under the bb. (This is 'cos the vibrant chain stays curve up, compared to straight stays, so a wire ontop would foul the tube). And I think its dangerous 'cos the work done in 'converting' this unfortunate frame to try and look like something it is not, I reckon would of wrecked the rear triangle completely. I would expect it to fail on its first ride. A death trap. And people are bidding for this.
So from this, I fear that unless you get lucky, you'll be doing well to get a reasonable Curly at a reasonable price. Whilst they are nice bits of kit, they ain't an order of magnitude better than other class lightweights of the time. I can assure you that having bends in your rear frame tubes doesn't in any way improve the ride. Yes, they are distinctive, and nicely made, but I don't consider the premium they currently attract to be justified. So in your shoes, I'd go for a class conventional machine such as Rotrax or Ephgrave or Condor or any other of the numerous similar 1950's frames, and wait for sanity to return to the market.