Victor Bonnet produced this pigeon but at that time it was a fairly common toy and pigeons were sold by many toy manufacturers, also in other countries such as Germany.
It therefore happens quite often that a tin pigeon is called a Martin even though it is made by another manufacturer.
This Victor Bonnet pigeon is produced in several color variations but the most common are light blue/grey and black.
From the moment the old Martin factory ceased to exist at the end of 1933, the production was taken over in 1934 by another Victor Bonnet factory in another building in Paris.
This pigeon was produced from 1919 and presumably until the second world war.
The production number from 1919 till the end of 1933 is 251.
After the take over of the production of various toys that were produced in the old Martin factory like this pigeon toy, Victor Bonnet started to renumber his toy production in 1934, this pigeon got number 3.
Courtesy Clive Lamming
Below a few other color variations
If you want to buy one you should pay attention to the following things:
Look at the bottom if there must be a bottom plate that protects the mechanism and there must also be two feet under the pigeon.
When the mechanism is turned up, he moves forward and his head moves up and down.
This “Le Ramier” is found with three different versions of the keys; with a separate key, with a Georges Flersheim type key and with a Victor Bonnet type key.
The logo is on the belly side, he is found with two different bronze colored logo plates used from 1919 till the end of 1933, after the relocation of the factory in 1934 this pigeon get a VEBE logo, this logo was hammered into the sheet metal, , Victor Bonnet used this VEBE logo before in his other factory for household products, he already had this logo captured on April 16, 1929.