In the 1940s and 1950s Gnutti produced “3-piece” hubs similar to Campagnolo, but at a lower price point. Road hubs had Quick Release mechanisms based on the Campagnolo design and made under licence from Campagnolo:
3-piece hubs were so called because they comprised a central barrel of steel with 2 separate flanges press fit onto the ends of the barrel. In the better hubs, as below, these flanges were aluminium alloy:
The central barrels of these hubs were chromium-plated and almost invariably the original plating shows rust or has been lost completely – common to most manufacturers (e.g. Gnutti, Campagnolo, BHC (Airlite), Powell)
The picture below shows 3 generations of Gnutti Quick Release mechanisms:
The earliest type indicates that it is made under licence from Campagnolo with the embossed words LIC CAMPAGNOLO (just visible under GNUTTI):
This was dropped in the next generation:
And a later generation looked more like Campagnolo with a beaded edge:
