To: Shy Torque
It was the Agusta 101 which was developed as leverage to get Vertol Helicopters to approve the production of CH-47s by Agusta to sell in the European and African / Middle East areas. Once the first model flew Vertol figured it was better to have Agusta build the CH-47s and make some licensing money on each sale. The Chief Engineer was (I believe) Dr Eng. Bruno Lovera.
I worked at Agusta on a consulting contract and came across a rotorhead, which looked like a large version of a French design used on their early helicopters. Each of the offset hinges were tied together by a very stout cable which restricted individual movement of the blades I asked Dr. Lovera about it and he told me the story. He then took me out to look at the hull of one of the A-101s. It was exactly as you described. Dr. Lovera indicated that the performance was a bit lacking.
When Agusta teamed up with Westland and EHI was formed Agusta argued that the new helicopter be called the EH-101. They argued until it was a done deal. Westland was totally unaware of the existence of the original A-101.