Martin started in 1880 his first factory at the address 90 Boulevard de Ménilmontant, a L-shaped 6-storey building ( ground floor, 4 floors, attic floor) and a backyard, in the middle of the building is an porch that leads to the backyard, this building was built around 1860

As a starting manufacturer, he must have rented only a small part of the address 90 Boulevard de Ménilmontant.

Due his commercial succes of the “Petit Garçon Livreur” (the delivery boy) in 1888, (we know this toy as the “Le Livreur”) Martin has now the money to acquire a new building to expand his factory.
In 1892 he acquired the adjacent building number 88 with a square form and after a renovation / rebuilding around 1900, the factory was a lot bigger than his old factory and was, for that time, a revolutionary conception.

After Bonnet’s departure, the facade of the building 88 Boulevard de Ménilmontant was adjusted, the old facade was a pointed facade and the new facade suggested a flat roof, but behind this facade there is still a pointed roof.

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Three different manufacturers and the differences between their models

In this article I try to provide some clarity about the various versions of these toys.
Fernand Martin started the first toy with the name La Petite Marchande D’Orange in 1901 and product number 184.
The successor’s of Fernand Martin > Georges Flersheim and Victor Bonnet continued the production but made some changes to this toy.
When you have one or you want to buy one and you want to know more then see this overview with the differences.

OVERVIEW:

Characteristics of the Fernand Martin versions.

• name: La Petite Marchande D’Oranges.
• product number 184.
• first production year 1901
• key model Fernand Martin.
• place key: above the right wheel.
• mechanism placed vertically until “in” the cart.
• cart equipped with oranges.
• two price tags on top of the oranges.
• the lady has a bustle under the skirt.
• hairstyle model.

Characteristics of the Georges Flersheim versions.

• Georges Flersheim used two different names
• name for the model with oranges: La Petite Marchande D’Oranges
• name for the model without oranges: La Petite Marchande.
• product number 184.
• first production year 1912
• key model Georges Flersheim and a few with model Fernand Martin (probably in the first year)
• place off the key: left of the right wheel.
• the mechanism is placed horizontally under the cart.
• hairstyle in two models.

• the lady has no bustle under the skirt only in the first year, after which the “bustle” disappears.
• the oranges are also stacked less high than the first model of Fernand Martin and lack the two price tags.
• the cart up in different models: All models are without a bent edge on top of the card.
  • —Model equipped with oranges has sometimes a green border around the oranges.
  • —Model without oranges.
  • —Model (very rare) with oranges as a candy container.

Characteristics of Victor Bonnet versions.

• Victor Bonnet used two names like George Flersheim and two different product numbers.
• product number: in the catalog of Victor Bonnet from around 1928 this toy is mentioned with two different product numbers; La Petite Marchande D’Orange with number 184 and La Petite Marchande with number 185, this is probably a print mistake in the catalogue, the number 185 on boxes are never found. (Note: that number 185 was used in 1901 for the Le Vieux Marcheur.)

• first production year 1919
• key model Victor Bonnet
• place key: left of the right wheel.
• mechanism placed horizontally under the cart.
• all models are without a bent edge on top of the card.
• models with and without oranges.
• model with the oranges are they equal the model George Flersheim
• the lady has no bustle under the skirt

• hairstyle model.

Various additional images to clarify the text :

Picture courtesy:
PA TOYS OF TIME PAST
BERTOIA AUCTIONS
SPIELMUSEUM SOLTAU GERMANY
AND MY PRIVATE COLLECTION

Fantastic Selection of Mechnical Banks, Still Banks, American Tin And Clockwork Toys, European Aeronautical Toys, and Much, Much More.

​IN THIS AUCTION ARE TWO MARTIN TOYS

There are many more beautiful toys in this auction

For the complete overview, Auction terms & Info, Shipping & Payment look at this site:
https://www.rslauctionco.com

These result price are in US $ and without Buyer’s Premium and subject to errors.
Always check the auction site for the results.

Regarding the objects described in this article, I do not make a statement about authenticity, condition or value.
I advise interested collectors always do to research yourself, to view the object or to contact the seller / auction

Produced from 1908
Product number 213
Hand lacquered
Mechanism: clockwork
Height approx. 19 cm / 7,5 inches

There are currently 4 different box labels known for this toy, I will post about this in another blog.

A free translation from a article in the “La Nature” from 1909

The most curious of all is undoubtedly the clown of figures, two arms and two legs, articulated to a body in which the whole mechanism is located: and this one is simple; a spring that activates a series of gears, ending in 4 pinions attached to each of the members.
Wind up the spring and you will see the clown perform the funniest turns and pirouettes, depending on the reactions he gets on the ground.
This game could be the source of some very nice mechanical issues.
The left figure gives us some examples of mechanical clown dexterity.

Produced from 1908
Product number 209
Hand lacquered
Mechanism: clockwork
Height approx. 21 cm / 8,3 inches

Note: Unfortunately, the fish has often disappeared and replaced by another specimen, the original model can be seen in the museum in Paris where Martin’s gift in 1908 with this “The Perfect Fisherman” is on display.

The French magazine La Nature from 1909 contains an article with the description and two drawings about the technique of this fisherman

Here is the little fisherman: seated comfortably at the edge of an imaginary watercourse, he throws his line to the left, the current, or rather the mechanism, takes him back to the right, along the flow of the water; then suddenly the fisherman picks it up, throws it to the left again and so on. The mechanism is easy to understand: when released, spring A activates a series of gears controlled by an transmission via the connecting rod B and the rod T it gives the fisherman’s body a back and forth movement.

But Martin was already working on an idea for a fisherman in 1906, he has already used a fisherman in his film (see photo below), he took the “Le Pochard” ( the drunk) for it, gave him a sitting position and a fishing rod in the left hand where the drinking cup would normally be.
The entire film can be seen in my blog:

film-from-1906-with-a-lot-of-martin-toys

As is known, in 1908 Fernand Martin made a donation to the museum Cnum in Paris in the form of 100 toys as an overview of his (almost) total production from the beginning of his first piece.

The museum has divided the original enumeration over a number of sections, I have returned it in the overview below to the original numbering as Martin wrote it down. This list is also published in the toy book of Mary Hiller Automata & Machanical Toys from 1976

In 1960, the museum Cnum (Bibliothèque numérique en histoire des sciences et des techniques) made a publication about toys with a chapter about this gift, (all rights reserved – CNAM)

At the end of this overview there are also three pieces that belong to the collection of the Museum but that do not belong to the gift.

Link to the release: https://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?M6136/0002/100/70/0009/0066

See the overvieuw of the Fernand Martin toys in this publication from page 63 up to and including page 66.

Overvieuw gift from Fernand Martin in 1908, a total of 100 toys original numbering as Martin wrote it down:

Date. — Name and number on the gift

1878. — Le poisson mécanique  1

This fish is the first toy of Fernand Martin

1879. — La balançoire mécanique  2

1880. — Le bateau godilleur   3

1881. — La grenouille nageuse  4

1882. — Le patin mécanique  5

1803. — Le moulin mécanique à tic-tac   6

1883. — la locomotive routière  7

1883. — Les forgerons infatigables   8 

1884. — Le cheval bascule  9  

1884. —  Le vélocipède  10

1885. — Le trapèze   11

1885. — Le sonneur endiablé   12

1885. — Les valseurs   13

1886. — Les courageux scieurs de long   14

1886. — La danseuse de corde   15

1887. — les fameux duellistes   16

1887. — Les pompiers   17

1888. — Le Livreur 18

1888. — Les joyeux danseurs  19

1888. — L’autruche   20

1889. — La grosse caisse  21

1889. — L’écrevisse   22

1889. — Le fauteuil roulant de l’exposition  23

1889. — Le pousse-pousse annamite de l’exposition   24

1889. — La grosse caisse annamite de l’exposition  25

1889. — Le cab  26

1890. — Le lapin vivant   27

1890. — La sauteuse de corde   28

1890. — Don Quichotte  29

1890. — Le diable en boite  30

1891. — Les boxeurs   31

1892. — Le chérif  32

1892. — Le traineau russe au 33

1892 — La charrette anglaise   34

1892. — Le pêcheur à la linge 35

1892. — Le bicyclette Martin 36

1892. — Le courrier parisien   37

1893. — Le perroquet   38

1893. — La chaloupe à vapeur   39

1893. — La perruche 40

1894. — La course de taureau   41

1804. — Le piocheur   42

1894. — L’attelage flamand   43

1894.— Le facteur de chemin de fer 44

1895. — Ma portière 45

1895. — Le treuil   46

1896. — L’araignée et la mouche   47

1896. — La forge.   48

1897. — La famille Vélo 49

1897. — La pompe  50

1898. —  Les Boeufs   51

1898. — Le petit décrotteur  52

1898. — Le motocycle   53

1899. — L’oie 54

1899. — La faucheur 55

1899. — La blanchisseuse 56

1899. — Le pochard  57

1900. — The gentleman khaki   58

1900. — Le vaillant Boer 59

1900. — L’homme de corvée  60

1900. —  Le chinois 61

1901. — Bamboula  62

1901. — L’agent  63

1901. —  God save the king 64

1901. —  The Policeman 65

1901. — Le Marchande  d’oranges 66

1901. — Le garçon de café 67

1901. — L’homme sandwich 68

1902. — La sentinelle française 69

1902. — La sentinelle russe 70

1902. — La sentinelle italienne 71

1902. — Le charcutier  72

1902. —Le vieux marcheur  73

1902. — Le fort de la halle 74

1901. — Le petit pianiste 75

1902. — Le clown 76

1902. — L’artiste capillaire 77

1903. — Le gendarme 78

1903. — L’ours Martin  79

1903. — Le cake walk   80

1904. — La Voiture â bitume   81

1904. — Les pompiers à l’échelle  82

1904. — Le cuisinier   83

1905. — Le joueur de boules 84

1905. — L’hercule populaire  85

1905. — Le gymnaste   86

1905. — L’éminent avocat   87

1905. — Le laboureur   88

1906. — La boule mystérieuse   89

1906. — La course en sac   90

1907.— Chand tonneaux !!!  91

1907. — Le petit diabolo   92

1908. — Le partait pêcheur   93

1908. — Le petit boucher   94

1906. — Le petit écureuil vivant  95

1908. — Le menuisier   96

I908. — Le petit culbuteur     97

Double numbered in the gift with the remark “bis”

1887. — Le jeu de bascule  15 bis 

1897. — Le lapin tambour 49 bis   

1897. — Le gai violoniste  5o bis   

                                          _______________

Total                                            100 objects

Note: On the list in this 1960 edition of the Cnum publication there are three extra toys mentioned, however, these toys are made after 1908 so not included in the gift.

1909. — L’autopatte

1909. — Le singe savant    

1912. — Le petit livreur.

During my search for Martin articles I found this drawing in the French magazine: LE MONDE ILLUSTRÉ Dec 7 -1901. This image shows Fernand Martin with his toys on display. This stand was the first edition of the famous Concours Lepine in Paris in 1901.

The drawing also clearly shows the toys and also shows the name “MARTIN”, on this drawing you can see: Madame Loubet, (the wife of the then President of France) looks at the inventor Mr Martin with the “LE POCHARD” (the drunk man) toy in his hand, at her side M Lepine the organizer of this exhibition / competition in 1901

The Concours Lépine is a French invention competition created in 1901 by Louis Lépine, then police prefect of Paris.
Initiated by Prefect Lépine, the event was called the “Paris Toys and Articles Exhibition” from September 30, 1901, and gave rise to a competition from November 24 to the following December 8, before a jury. This competition became annual and was renamed in 1902 “Lépine competition” and still exists today.

Produced from 1890
Product number 117 (In the books known to us, this toy has the Martin product number 33 which is not correct. )
Hand lacquered
Mechanism: Rubber band

Length approx. 14,8 cm/ 5,8 inches
Height approx. 14 cm/ 5,5 inches

The operation of the mechanism as indicated in the etching above, I have previously written a blog about these four nice etchings, see: https://fernandmartintoys.nl/very-small-etchings-from-1892-with-toys/

Free translation from the article from the magazine: “LA NATURE” page 44 and 45 1892.

The devil in a box mechanism is arranged horizontally, the delicate question with these types of movements is that they must be balanced as precisely as possible so that they can function as regularly as a pendulum.
We see in our drawing the counterweight E used for this balancing, and the oscillating balance D which maneuvers a vertical rod at each of its entrances.
One of these rods F. passing between the man’s legs makes him lean forward to slay the devil as soon as he appears; the other rod serves to alternately open and close the lid of the box to which the devil is connected by a metal plate. As for labor, here is an interesting fact, this toy has a total of 150 different operations.
These operations include cutting, stamping, trimming, bending, stapling and mounting.
As for the cast iron for the counterweight and the broom that moves to defeat the devil (this broom is a counterweight intended to balance the moving bust of the character), which we obtain through the use of molds in which molten metal is poured.
The steps indicated above also require soldering the various parts, decorating and painting, mounting the rubber band, adjusting and packaging.
Finally comes the manufacture of the labels which, although given as an extra, must also have a small example of elegance.

This is one of the rarest Martin toys

Date of first production 1878
Length 26.5cm / 10.43 Inc
Drive: rubber band

Presumably the second toy that Martin has put on the market.
No factory number is known. (a guess: it could be number 101)
The drive is by means of the rubber band mechanism known at Fernand Martin

I found in this French book the patent number of this toy
The patent was published under number 128,445 on Januari 14 -1879 and original for his first toy : the fish
The third addition to his original patent 128,445 was mentioned for a swing toy, any jumping insect and for a boat, this third addition was dated June 24 -1880.

— What we see in the Barracks. — Toys of the day. — What interesting automata. — For the joy of the little ones and the tranquility of the grown-ups.

Paris, December 24 – 1910 La Dépeche – journal quotidien

While the traditional chromolithographs (Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints.) continue to represent to us an icy Christmas where the cottages half disappear under the snow, where the trees with bare branches let stalactites of frost hang down to the ground all white, while the storytellers still speak to us of evenings cold, whistling wind, avalanches of aerial snowflakes, we wade through the warm and humid atmosphere of an absurd month of December when the mercury in the thermometer reached crazy heights for the season. Nothing would remind us of the approaching Christmas if the New Year’s Day barracks weren’t there, faithful to their post, from the Madeleine to the Bastille, spreading out their stalls crying in the wind. Poor sellers! We say a lot of good and a lot of bad. There are people who find them quaint and others who find them cumbersome. It depends on the temperaments. Moreover, in such matters, only point is the children’s point of view, and their point of view is that there are new toys in the little shacks every year. Where are the dolls of yesteryear? Where do the toy soldiers and wooden horses smell? Poor old-fashioned toys, we hardly see any more. They gradually gave way to the invasion of mechanical toys, science toys, animated marvels and prestigious automatons. This year, the airplane is the great winner. You find it everywhere: toys for two pennies or toys for thirty or fifty francs. The automobile, even the catastrophe automobile, is somewhat abandoned. She’s not up to date enough anymore.

As for the automatons, the inventive genius of the builders has, as always, given free rein to them. What do you say to this “shackled” who hops awkwardly in her fashionable skirt? (Fernand Martin number 220 L’entravée)

It is exactly that, as absurd as reality. And it’s a piquant spectacle: on the trestles of the barracks, the tin shackles jump. On the sidewalk of the boulevard, the flesh and blood shackles skip. But here is an organ player (Prosper Lévi S.i.j.i.m. number 33 Le joueur d’orgue ) who actually plays the organ. Listen: Don’t you recognize the tinny sounds of « Si tu veux nous serons heureux » (If you want we will be happy) almost everywhere ?

finally, we find a fight between the two age-old enemies. What am I saying! secular! millennials, rather! That is about the woman and the mouse, ( Martin number 221 La chasse au rat ) these two beings who, since they exist, have been inspire a mutual fright. You know that all it takes is a mouse to put a woman on the run. On the other hand, if a woman starts chasing a mouse (which is rare), the mouse runs away.

But this year, a toy offers you the view of a courageous janitor with a broom in hand, stand up to the enemy. It’s a quaint duel, but the inventor was well advised to choose a concierge. No ordinary mortal of the tenant race, a pusillanimous race, would have dared to engage in battle against such a formidable enemy.

name: Dame de la crois rouge (the red cross nurce)
production number 237
production from: 1913
hoogte 20 cm / 7,87 inch
manufacturer: Georges Flersheim (successor of Fernand Martin)

I have personally seen a total of 6 pieces at auctions and in museums.
What is striking is that the face/head is not always the same, there are versions with a raised edge at her height and without this raised edge, whether both are original or one of these is not original? I don’t know.

This Red Cross sister goes for a walk after the clockwork has been wound.
The walking mechanism is the same as that of the “Le Vieux Marcheur” (the walking gentleman) with number 185 from 1901 with patent number FR 298509.

The Red Cross name and logo was a registered trademark and could not simply be used on products.
It is not known whether Flersheim had permission.

I found an article in an old French technical magazine La Nature from 1894 about a tin boat made by Martin.
This nice piece is put in motion by the well-known Martin “rubber band” method, the motion is done by a winding handle at the front of the boat, under the boat is, in the tube, the “rubber band” that goes to the movement mechanism.

Produced from 1893
Product number 125 (In the books known to us, this toy has the Martin product number 43 which is not correct. )
Hand lacquered
Mechanism: Rubber band

length approx 27.5 cm (10.63) inches

Original article and drawing’s from the magazine “La Nature 1894” Source: (Cnum – Digital Conservatory of Arts and Crafts – http://cnum.cnam.fr)

SCIENTIFIC TOYS
THE THRUST RUDDER
Looking at it closely, or is almost always astonished, and often amazed at the ingenuity displayed in the construction of any toy.
The child who breaks his rattle has no idea that he sometimes destroys a wonder, and Mum is far from even thinking of it. It only cost fifteen sous, they say.
But it is specified by the modieity of its price that the mechanical toy is generally a tour de force of combination.
To reduce everything to the maximum of simplicity from the point of view of the manufacture and assembly of the parts, such is the condition under which a toy will not be sold, because it will be too expensive.
Among the new creations of the last day of the year, we will choose one that is typical: the boat with propellant rudder.
Whoever imagined it must have often observed the fish, seen the way in which they throw right and left a blow of the tail which makes them move forward, and he undoubtedly sought to imitate this movement in the toy of which we speak.

Here is (fig. I) our little boat
At first glance, one thinks to see a boiler and a propeller, with a pill oddly sitting down with his steam engine and holding the rudder ropes. However, that is not the mechanism.
The pilot only serves to amuse baby, the boiler too.
The whole engine is in the keel; it is a simple rubber thread concealed in a channel, and fixed in the center of a toothed wheel; ‘at the other end, it is attached to a lever which rests on the two notches of a ratchet
The toothed wheel is nothing more than an escape wheel, and not the least; it is an anchor escapement of which the rudder head forms the counterpart.
Under the alternating impact of the teeth of the wheel (fig. I detail) between two stops placed to the right and to the left of the axis of the gourernail, the latter begins to perform oscillations which communicate its movement to the boat.
By what mechanism is the thrust carried out?
It is easy to realize this by analyzing the movement of the gourernail. Oscillations around the axis can be likened to periodically interrupted rotation.
However, this rotation results in a centrifugal movement of the water, and, consequently, a reaction on the rudder, the component of which along the axis of the boat is directed forward.
But there is another cause, probably dies effective, of propulsion.
If the rudder were to execute movements with symmetrical speeds, it would experience a thrust forward as it approached its mean position, and a retrograde thrust of the same mean value from that point on.
But this is not the case.
When the rudder leaves the escape wheel, the latter falls back with force on the second stop, and loses part of its kinetic energy there, immediately imparting a certain speed to the rudder; it then acts on the maximum lever arm, but when the rudder passes through its equilibrium position, the stop is already tilted a little; it slips away more and more, until the loose tooth is caught.
The speed of the rudder therefore decreases from the moment it begins to throw water back, until it reaches the end of its course.
However, the resistance of water is roughly proportional to the square of the speed of the moving body; therefore the pressures are stronger from back to front than in the reverse direction.
On average, this results in a propulsive force for progression which makes our little boat move forward.
We compared it earlier to a eur. View ecti.mblo and detail of the fish rudder; the analogy is real, but it is not perfect.
The rigid rudder employed as a propellant is far from being advantageous, since its action depends above all on a difference in speed and can only be very slight, and we know that, in nature, actions are generally very well combined.
If, instead of a rigid rudder, an articulated rudder is adopted (fig. 2), the apparatus becomes more advantageous; attempts in this direction have been made in the past.
The thruster consists, in this combination, of two parts A and B connected by a vertical axis.

Plane A carries, on the right and on the left, two stoppers which limit the movement of B.
As soon as this last plan ceased to act as a propellant.
A goes back, and resumes B in the symmetrical position of the one he occupied.
We can now replace the single joint with a series of hinges, each of which leaves the plane it carries a certain degree of freedom. We thus manage to build a propellant similar to the tail of the fish, of which our small boat shows the mode of action by an elementary mechanism of extreme simplicity.

In one of the previous auctions of the Milestone auction house I found a Le Pochard with a very rare and different box for the Martin number 172.
This box has the name : The Zig-Zag Man.

It is difficult to say where the name comes from but I found a possible option:
The “ZIG-ZAG Man” is based on the story of a French North African soldier (Zouave) aka Captain Zig-Zag, whose smoking pipe was shattered by a stray bullet during the battle of Sevastopol in 1854, so he rolled his tobacco using a piece of paper torn from a musket cartridge.
In 1855 was a French firm that used the name Zig-Zag as a brand of rolling papers, this firm was originated in Paris.
The Zig-Zag brand introduced a new and convenient way to roll up tobacco products with specially designed paper.
Zig-Zag was awarded in 1900 a gold medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris
Perhaps Martin made at the request of this “Zig-Zag” company an advertising figure, but that is unclear.
(Part of the text is from Wikipedia)

The number on the box is 172-bis and the label is the small version, so it was made in a later period than the year 1899 in which the first copies were made.
The figure still has a typical Martin key, so it was made before the takeover in 1912

In 1892 a French newspaper La Petit Presse gave its readers a special advantage to buy products that the newspaper purchased directly from the manufacturers.
The products mentioned also include a number of toys.
On closer inspection of the toys, these are all Fernand Martin products.

The number behind the toy name is the product number from the newspaper and not a Martin number.

We wish everyone a happy and peaceful Easter

One of Fernand Martin’s strengths was that he converted people from everyday life into children’s toys, to give these toys a good likeness and of course to hide the mechanism he gave them clothes.
This has several advantages, the children like this better, you can give a figure a different profession or look very simply and of course cheaper.

Here are some examples I found in my collection of magazines.

In 1905 a world exhibition was held in Liège, Belgium.
France was also represented at this exhibition with the French toy industry in section 100.
In this earlier blog :

original-antique-stereo-glass-plate-of-a-sale-booth-with-martin-toys

I presented a original glass stereo photo that was taken at this exhibition and depicts a counter full of Fernand Martin toys.

I now found in the book: Exposition Internationale 1905 Liege, Section française Class 100 more information and also a photo showing the back of this counter.

In this photo you also see a large white statue, I have already mentioned the existence of this statue in one of my previous blogs.
This colossal statue was personifying “the Toy Fairy distributing toys”.
In the glass stereo photo from my earlier blog and on the first photo above, you can see a part of this image on the left (white part of the image and black part of a cloth over a foot/table).

Fernand Martin was one of the jury members at this exhibition, the jury members can be seen in a photo from that book, in this photo you can also see Martin himself.
Photos of Fernand Martin himself are quite rare.

Reference book: Exposition international 1905 Liege ; Section française Class 100, this book can be found on the CNUM website

Produced from 1885
Product number unknown (In the books known to us, this toy has the Martin product number 13 which is not correct, this trapeze artist has probably not been given a product number.)
Hand lacquered
Mechanism: Rubber band

Length approx. 14 cm / 5.5 inches
Height approx. 17.8 cm / 7 inches

By winding the rubber band, the movement is converted into a pendulum movement that allows the gymnast to do his tricks.

This is a quite rare toy from Fernand Martin.
The column and roof were also used for: Le sonneur endiablé in 1885 number 102, but also much later by the presumed successors/descendants of Georges Flersheim in the toy: Je sonne la paix in 1916 number 246.
The figure of the gynast has also been used more often in other Martin toys.

This is an updated version of a previously posted article because new things have been found.

Until now we know the boxes of many Fernand Martin toys.
The first box label of a toy was designed just before the first production of these toys.
Once on the market, the most toys remained the same box for many years and even decades.
But from the Le Petit Livreur, ( the acrobat ) a tumbling clown, produced from 1908 with Fernand Martin number 213, there are, till now, four box labels known.

In the bottom of the box is one of the narrow upright side a hole in which, the key was attached with a ribbon or rope that goes through that hole in the box.
This ribbon has long disappeared in most cases, I have only seen it a few times.

Three boxes contain a label and one box only a stamp.
It is not known when which label was issued.
You can see that one box has an English inscription, otherwise the box has exactly the same texts and logos as the box for the French market.

Something about boxes in general :

Boxes generally tell a lot about a toy and are therefore very interesting.
The manufacturer’s name.
The factory logo.
The product number.
The manual.
Country of origin.
Sometimes also patent applications and even the patent numbers.
Martin often put there gross and net weights.
And he told everyone which (international) prizes he has achieved and where he was a member or president of the jury.

It even happens that a loose box at auction will yield more than the toy, of course because these are much rarer.
Children threw the box away and a box is also much more fragile and broke and thrown away.

Martin has often accidentally or deliberately forgotten to include a number in his product numbering.
In his period from 1878 to his first Bonshomme de Ma Portiére in 1895 a number of figures without number are known, see my article for this: https://fernandmartintoys.nl/the-numbering-of-the-fernand-martin-first-period-who-can-help-me/

From the Ma Portiére in 1895 to the sale to George Flersheim in 1912, a few figures without numbers are also known.
Starting with two figures featured in the image from the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.

In this image a few are recognizable and the corresponding figures have also been found.

Maybe there are still some figures on this St Louis photo, but the photo is so bad that they cannot be recognized immediately, wait until the actual figure(s) is found.

But there are still a few figures that cannot be found in the well-known catalogs and there are no boxes available.

Another image also shows a few figures whose number is currently unknown.

These two figures are incorrectly numbered in the existing literature, see why in my blog: https://fernandmartintoys.nl/change-of-martin-numbers-for-some-toys/

(both images courtesy Bertoia Auctions)

Martin donated 100 toys to the “Musée Dez Arts Et Métiers” in Paris in 1908, this donation was a good overview of the toys he has produced since the beginning, he also made a list of them.
All the pieces in his donation can be traced back through documentation and old found catalogues.
These four pieces are therefore not only numbered, but are also not included in the donation.
As can be seen above, they are documented.

The Flersheim period

In the Flersheim period from 1912 to 1919 there are still many uncertainties, the photo below shows a Le Petit Livreur with a trunk, on the far right.
This is not mensioned in the numbering known to us.

And one of my collector friends has a version of the L’autopatte with the same trunk on it.

There is a lot of uncertainty about the numbering of the Flersheim period from 1912 to 1919, many figures are known, but the product numbers are often not.
We’ll wait and see and maybe we’ll get this numbering complete one day.

In black the numbers and names known to us, the numbers in red have yet to get their corresponding name, if any of my readers know the correct names of one or more of the missing numbers (with proof like a numbered box) please message me.

List of confirmed numbers :

227: “Chaud les Marrons“
228: “Le Motocycliste Enragé“
229: “Le Petit Patineur“
230: “La Pédalette“
231: “Le Motocycliste“
232: “Soldat Bulgare“
233: “La Casseuse d’Assiettes“
234: “Le Chef d’Orchestre“
235:
236:
237: “Dame de la Croix-Rouge”
238: “Soldat Marocain”
239:
240: “La Guerre Aérienne”
241: “Ma Nounou”
242:
243:
244:
245:
246: “Je Sonne la Paix“

first production date : 1892
production number: 127 (In the books known to us, this toy has the Martin product number 36, but the latest discoveries show that the real number is 127.)
mechanism: clockwork
height: 8,5 cm / 7,87 inch – length: 21 cm / 8,27 inch
produced by Fernand Martin

Around 1912 there were a few toys that differed in detail from the normal models.
This happened just before or just after the takeover from Martin to Georges Flersheim.
A few models were then modified and provided with an open space to put in presumably sweets.
These spaces were created in two ways.
A tin container was placed on the models of the “Le petit Livreur” and the “L’autopatte”.
The model of the “Le petit marchane d’oranges” the top was made so that it could open.

In the Martin “Le petit marchane d’oranges” model, the mechanism is “in” the space between the bottom of the cart and the fruit, in the later model the mechanism has been moved to the bottom of the cat.

So it was three known models with a “temporary” adjustment.
Whether Martin or Flersheim were responsible for this is not entirely known, but they all have clear signs of the Martin models, the later Flersheim models have several specific changes compared to the Martin models, so I think they are models that were produced by Flersheim immediately after the takeover using parts that were still in stock from the earlier Fernand Martin production.

These three models with the candy container are very rare.

In 2023 I published a blog : https://fernandmartintoys.nl/magazine-les-jouets-et-jeux-anciens/ 

That blog mentioned a report about a meeting in 1906, during which a film was published with mainly Martin toys but also toys from Lehmann, among others.

I received a copy of this report from Mr. Claude Lamboley which included the following text:

Translation:
Then the whole series of well-known mechanical toys was paraded before us that are manufactured in the factory of Mr. Fernand Martin. Cinematographic films presented the workshops and the tools of this manufacture; hands showed the toys being made, turning them, turning them over, while the lecturer gave the explanation (very curious effect).
Then, finally, the cinematograph projected amusing and dramatic scenes, the actors of which were Mr. Martin’s’s mechanical little bonshommes.

In that blog from July 18 -2023 I said: Now we have to find that film.

Now I can tell you that I found this film. This film is used by Mr Klaus Lorenz in his lecture : THE MAGIC OF AUTOMATES on June 02 – 2023 This lecture was held in the CINÉMATHÈQUE Paris – Room George’s Franju 

(Wikipedia: The Cinémathèque Française Paris, founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world.The archive offers daily screenings of worldwide films.)

In an old Pathé-Frères catalogue from 1907, this film is listed under number 1356 with the following text:

Bob’s Theater….
Bob’s father was undoubtedly generous, because on the small theater stage we will recognize all the popular types of the latest toys of the year.
Bob, as an excellent director, managed to introduce them to us as an artist, and despite the age it is a pleasure there, it will certainly please everyone.

The hole lecture is about 1 hour and 15 min. , in this compleet lecture you see a lot of other toy automates, this lecture is in French. 

The part with the Martins start on 0.00 min. till 6.35 min. , it is a silent film so no text, music or spoken words. 

Here the link to the complete lecture with the film: Le théàtre de Bob de Gaston Velle.

https://www.cinematheque.fr/video/2082.html

ENJOY…

Name: La Patinette
Produced from about 1929
Produced by Victor Bonnet (VB&Cie)
Production number 263
Movement mechanism: turning key with a loose key
Height: 22.5 cm / 8.86 inch
Length: 23 cm / 9.06 inch

If you look closely at the legs and the shoes you will see that Victor Bonnet has reused them from the boy on roller skates, Le Petit Patineur number 229 from 1914 made by Georges Flesheim.
The movement mechanism is also the same, they make a step movement with their right leg while the other leg is fixed on the roller skate with the Le Petit Patineur and on the step with the La Patinette.

This figure was used years ago by a Dutch investment / mortgage company in one of their advertisements.

In recent months I have presented all till now known Victor Bonnet pistol models.
To make your search a little easier, I have combined them in this blog
Here is an overview of all models with the corresponding link to the relevant blog for each model.

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers and link to the specific blog:
247 le-pan-pan
256 flac
257 bombarde
258 le-petard
262 tape_fort
264 le-sans-balle
266 le-costaud
??? le-corsaire (Product number unknown)

A very early Martin with the name: Le Livreur (the delivery guy)
Made from 1888
Product number 108
Length 15.6cm / 6.14in
This was probably the most successful Martin ever.

The history that preceded this:
Due to an article in the American “The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office” of October 20, 1885 on page 352, I came across the patent number 6470 of a “mechanical toy animal figure” .
I started searching further and it turned out to be an English patent.
In 1884 there was the Englishman Mr. William Hamilton Hall, 72 Denmark Villas, West Brighton, he was an inventor / toy manufacturer.
He filed a patent in England in April 17, 1884 under number GB 6470
The patent was filed under the name: “Improvements in Mechanical Toy Animal Figures”.
An extensive correction followed on January 26, 1885.
The Complete Specification was dated January 16, 1885, and it contains 7 pages of text and 3 pages of drawings.
The patent was directly applied for in several countries.
Here is an overview of the countries now known:
United States October 20, 1885 patent number 328912
France July 4, 1884, patent number 163149
Belgium March 28, 1885 patent number 68347
Austria December 4, 1884, patent number 34162
Hungary December 4, 1884, patent number 56714
Germany July 1, 1884, patent number 29806
England April 17, 1884, patent number 6470

The British Library Business & IP Center 96 Euston Road London make the patents available with explanation and images.

I found in David Pressland’s beautiful book “Pressland’s Blechspielzeug Der Welt” from 1995 and published by “AS Verlag Zürich” on page 241 a photo of a toy with his original box, the box appears, after further investigation, to have patent number 6470 and this is exactly the toy patent number from William Hamilton Hall produced from 1884, but are the box and toy on the photo from Hall?

I had a toy as on the picture from David Pressland book in my collection myself that looks like Martins “Le Livreur” but until now I do not know who the manufacturer is. As seen on the picture there is no crank-shaft between the wheels of the cart and there are no connecting-rods from the cart to the legs as seen on the Patent drawing above, Martin replaced that with a flywheel. Is this Hall’s “automatic postman” ?

Is it possible that Hall later adapted his toys, because they might have been cheaper and worked better, to Martin’s construction?”, yes that is possible, but he would have infringed Martin’s patent.
Or vice versa, Martin’s patent wouldn’t have been valid, if an instantiation of his invention had been commercially available.

I think that Martin study the Hall patent and he thought this was a wonderful toy and saw the business benefits.
But he had other thoughts about the mechanism and he applied for an “improved” patent for this type of toy.

In the book Fernand Martin Toymaker in Paris 1878-1912 it is stated on page 33 (with the wrong product number 22) that the story of the Le Livreur started with patent 75632 (printing error they meant 15632) on November 15, 1887 (this date will be reflected in the further story) but the story started with the William Hamilton Hill patent 6470 from April 17, 1884 in England so 3 years earlier.

Martin made improvements and on November 15, 1887 applied for a patent in England under the name “Improvements in Device or Mechanism for Communicating to Toys Movements Analogous to those of Human Beings and Animals when Walking.” and it get patent number 15632
The patent was reprinted as it was amended and quotes the following dates:
Date of Application: November 15, 1887,
Complete Specification Left (at the Patent Office,) May 09, 1888
Complete Specification Accepted July 27, 1888.
The patent contains 6 pages and includes 1 page with 4 drawings.

There are notable difference of Hall’s and Martin’s patents.
This is why “improvement” in Martin’s patent title takes its full sense, is that he eliminated the need for the crank-shaft between the wheels of the cart and the connecting-rods from the cart to the legs and replaced that with a flywheel.
He very smartly achieves it with the gripping of the heel of the supporting foot.
It therefore makes the cranked axle-tree easier to bend and the overall toy more reliable and simultaneously less expensive (less parts, less assembly time).

Regarding the Hall and Martin patent, Martin explains a few things on page 5 of his English patent.

Martin wrote the following text:

Having now specifically described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I am aware of Hall’s Specification No. 6470 AD 1884 and I make no claim to anything described and claimed therein, but what I claim is:
A kind of toy with a miniature figure (preferably of a man) the legs of whitch imitate the natural movements of walking by the combined action of a motor vehicle having a continuous translation motion and abutting point placing itself alternately on any suitable surface, in such manner that retaining one leg an instant on the ground and the movement of translation continuing this abutting point forces the leg in contact with the ground to incline itself thus giving a movement similar but in the reverse sense to the second leg with which it is connected by a bent or cranked axle.

About the same time, Martin also applied on November 12, 1887 for this patent in France, where it was given the number 186948.
See more in my other blog from August 15 2019:

le-livreur-description-of-the-patent-number-186948

But so far, all Martin copies and boxes found have the patent number 15632, so the English patent number.
I have not yet found any copies or a box with the French patent number.
On the top of the cart and on the box is written: “F.M. S.G.D.G. France & Etranger Paris Patent 15632“
France & Etranger meens French and foreign.
I think Martin used the English patent number because it had already been approved and the application for the French patent was still being processed in France.

Martin-Lehmann
Fernand Martin and E.P. Lehmann turned out to be good business colleagues and Lehmann also saw something in this toy.
Lehmann was allowed to use this patent against payment of 5 francs per 144 (12 dozen) pieces sold.
The success was enormous and within 8 months Lehmann came to Martin with a payment of 5000 francs, so 144.000 of the Lehmann “Express” EPL number 140, had already been sold up to that point.

On the back of the Lehmann Express (the copy of the Martin Le Livreur) , the text is Engl.Patent without a patent number.

A toy and his box :

Take a good look at the boxes from Martin, Lehmann and Hall ? , they are very similar.

The success of the collaboration between F. Martin and E.P. Lehmann was expanded with several Martins, of which Lehmann was allowed to use the patents and were also allowed to be manufactured.

With special thanks to:
The British Library. Business & IP Center. 96 Euston Road. London
To make the patents available with explanation and images.

Benjamin was a French newspaper for young people founded by Jean Nohain. First published in January 1929, it ended in 1958. Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France

A journalist from the magazine “Benjamin” visits M. Bonnet “President of French toy manufacturers…”

-Monsieur Bonnet, see you soon, madam, would you sit down?
The charming secretary who received me is a sociable person, she talks to you with respect.
-It’s because Monsieur Bonnet is very busy…
I know that.
mr. Bonnet honors himself with the admirable title of: President of the Syndicate Chamber of French Toy Manufacturers, but that’s not all, it’s an official title, but that generally means nothing.
-It’s no small feat, you can imagine, continues the dear secretary, to be governor-general of all French toys!
The time has come, now it gets interesting, I no longer wait for the chairman of a union chamber, but for the governor of toys, the king of toys, the Napoleon of toys, a gentleman who only talks and thinks of dolls, soldiers, trains…

—Would you like to go in, ma’am?
Mr. Bonnet stands before me and leads me into his opulent office.
I have to admit right away, Mr. Bonnet didn’t tell me this.
Disappointed and unless you’re unreasonable enough not to let in any toy king other than a six-year-old boy, everyone will agree that Mr. Bonnet is also exactly “the right man”, the type of the real good grandfather and a grandfather who spends his life surrounded by toys, judge a little!
Oh sir, you must know things that no one has the slightest idea!
Surely you can tell me how many toys we make each year?
Now impressive figures on toys come from France and elsewhere
—In France, on average, 70,000,000 are made, that is, for about 300,000,000 francs.
Who would have thought that? Every year, 70,000,000 toys are needed for little French people!

And what kind of toys do we mainly make, dolls and trains?
We can say that dolls alone make up a fifth of this production, the railway industry and the mechanical toy industry are about equally important, the rest of this figure achieved is represented by all kinds of toys.
And find all these dolls, all these trains, all these different toys, buyers?
—Certainly, and we could produce even more, since 20,000,000 pieces of foreign toys flow parallel to ours.
Imported toys then? Ah yes, I know one of the “Made in Germany” toys myself.
So there are so many toys made in Germany that those little Germans can’t destroy everything and that our little French children have to help them?
—We make a lot of them, but in the United States they make a lot more.
Is it the United States that produces the most?
Yes, they can be the main toy producing country classified according to the importance of their production: United States, Germany, France and Japan, where regiments of celluloid babies are born.
But it is Germany that exports the most, isn’t it?
—Yes, at least to France, the United States mainly exports to South America, Japan and to China.

Germany prefers to trade with us, firstly because it is our neighbor and secondly because French industrialists have a reputation for being very good payers.
—In 1930, of the 13,348 quintals (quintal is an old unit for weight of one hundred kilograms) of toys imported into France, 11,217 quintals came from Germany.
—But in Germany everyone has to make toys? You think I’m not telling the truth?
—In addition to the large factories, which are wonderfully equipped for the manufacture of mechanical toys, one can find whole families in small villages, such as in the Black Forest, for example, who are busy assembling small toys at home.
—Their work is paid at the rate of 0 Fr.50 to 2 Fr. per hour, which is too little and not good, as you can expect they work as much as possible.
You haven’t told me about the toy soldiers, sir.
—The toy soldier industry is starting to recover a bit, but each country is enough for its own consumption, other toys are also sold locally because it would be too inconvenient to ship it, for example, these are heavy toys such as wheelbarrows, carts, small furniture, wooden horses…

Here is a statement signed by Mr Bonnet

(translation) The president of the French toys manufacturer is hereby thanking the small junior Benjamin’s for listening to all our discussions.
He is asking them to please children of workmen and French toy makers by prioritizing toys made by their parents .

Sir, I didn’t believe the toy industry was so successful at first
—It is strong, important and also very complete, because it makes almost all crafts work, the little girls and boys want everything they see in the hands of adults in miniature, they have toy cars, sewing machines, bicycles, microscopes, clocks needed and who knows what else?

—On the other hand, some toys require a very diverse workforce.
—Open a box of board games and try to imagine the number of workers from many professions who had to work together to produce all these objects together.
But I think, sir, if the youngest didn’t break their toys, it would be a national disaster! half more unemployed?
—Certainly, ma’am, but thank goodness we’re not there yet and there will be a lot of water flowing under the bridges before the race of the little wrecker dies out, thankfully.
Who tell you, sir? I have a horrible three year old nephew who can bust the hardest toy in five minutes but darling is a good little civilian!
VIOLET-JEAN.

Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année
Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Boas Festas e um feliz Ano Novo
Kala Christougenna Ki’eftihismenos O Kenourios Chronos
God Jul och Gott Nytt År
Glædelig Jul og godt nytår
Geseende Kerfees en ’n gelukkige nuwe jaar
Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta

An overview of the contents of the new Antique Toy World Magazine January 2024:

Antique Toy World is the leading publication for toy collectors worldwide.

Published since 1970.
Antique Toy World is a monthly magazine published in the USA by Dale Kelley, the magazine’s founder, editor and publisher.

To subscribe go to https://antiquetoyworld.com/about-atw/
Email: ads@antiquetoyworld.com

An article with image of the bullfighter from Fernand Martin number 129 ((In the books known to us, this toy has the Martin product number 47, but that is incorrecte).

NEW YEAR’S DAY BARACKS 1894/1895

It seems that this year, the small booths on New Year’s Day have had a real resurgence in success. We don’t want to witness it except the compact crowd that hasn’t stopped crowding the boulevards since Christmas Eve.

During our walk we came across several sensational toys. In the series of mechanical toys, always very successful, here is the Bull race, which buyers have already dubbed the Little Sugar Bowl (explanation see below): two horizontal bars, one ending in a bull, the other in a toreador armed with his muleta, chase each other; the bull, with articulated legs, leaps upon the toreador who flees from him.

Explanation: Le petit sucrier: the sugar bowl. that was the nickname of Max Lebaudy, the son of a very wealthy French sugar manufacturer, who died young in 1895, after wasting millions, much of it in the most absurd way.
1894 is the year when Max fell in love with bullfighting.
He then intends to organize several bullfights on his estate and thus has an arena built for the occasion.
All of Paris and local notables are invited to attend these bullfights, orchestrated down to the smallest detail, even the program which was written in Spanish!
Because Fernand Martin also belonged to the notables of Paris, it is very likely that he also watched one of these bullfights and in an interview for the magazine: Almanach Pratique illustré du Petit Parisien 1913 article: Les jouet mécanique, invention bien Française by Paul Lagarlère page 71-80, Martin told that he was inspired by the Max Lebaudy bullfight’s to design this toy.

You can find another article about this toy in the link below:

 course-de-taureaux-the-bull-fighter

INFORMATION ON AUCTION 278

The auction will be held on December 5^th at 15:00 CEST in Bertolami Fine Art headquarter in Piazza Lovatelli, 1 – Rome.

In this auction there are 4 Martin toys, but there are more beautiful other toys in this auction.

The following methods of participation are available: in person; by telephone; online upon registration on our website www.bertolamifineart.com, or on our partner portals (see list below); by a written absentee bid to be received by 12:00 CEST on Tuesday 5^th November 2023.

List of partner portals:

Drouot – Invaluable – Live Auctioneers – Arsvalue – Bidspirit – One Bid

For more information click on this link: https://www.bertolamifineart.com/uk/special-conditions/informazioni-sullasta-278.asp?layout=0

These prices are in € (Euro) and without Buyer’s Premium and subject to errors.
Always check the auction site for the results.

Regarding the objects described in this article, I do not make a statement about condition or value.
I advise interested collectors always do to research yourself, to view the object or to contact the seller / auction . 

This very beautiful toy was first produced by Fernand Martin’s successor, Mr. Georges Flersheim.
In the late 1920s, approximately around 1928, these toys were produced again in a slightly modified form by Georges Flersheim’s successor Mr. Victor Bonnet
The height of both versions is approximately 19 cm / 7,5 inch

The differences are mainly in:
Georges Flersheim version is named: La Casseuse D’assiettes
Produced from 1913
Product number 233
Hand-lacquered
A characteristic Flersheim key
Produced in a red and blue version

Victor Bonnet version is named: Madelon Casseuse D’assiettes.
Produced from around 1928
Product number 260
The body is no longer hand-lacquered, only her face and hat with bow are hand-lacquered.
A distinctive Victor Bonnet key
Got cloth clothes

The number of dishes and the color of the dishes may differ depending on the version.
Georges Flersheim’s version only had “white” dishes.
Various color versions of the plates were found in the Victor Bonnet version.

• Only “white” dishes.
• “White” dishes with a “red” dish on top attached to the rod
• Dishes in “red” with gold-colored stars as decoration
• Dishes in “red” with gold-colored dots as decoration

The bottom dish that is attached to the hands is colored “white” in the Flersheim version, in the Bonnet version it is “white” and features a red factory logo with the text VB&CIE PARIS MADE IN FRANCE

‘La Casseuse d’Assiettes’ was inspired by a comic strip featuring a girl called Becassine.
The comic strip was first published ‘La Semaine de Suzette’ (February 1905), a weekly edition for girls and very soon Becassine became a French icon.
In 1913 Flersheim made her into a fantastic toy but he was not allowed to use the name Becassine because it had been registered as a trademark in 1910.
I found a book: La Semaine de Suzette with the first 26 weekly numbers of 1914, in this book the publisher placed advertisements, in which he sold ‘Becassine Casseuse d’Assiettes’ at 2.90 Francs, without naming Flersheim.

Book: “la Semaine de Suzette”, from 1914 10-ième année – Premier semestre 
Advertising 1 Bécassine 001 from “la Semaine de Suzette” No. 9 – 2 avril 1914 ( 10-ième annéé)
Advertising 2 Bécassine 001 from “la Semaine de Suzette”No. 11 – 16 avril 1914

Below you can see two patents about this toy, the first is the France patent with number 458560 of Mai 29 -1913 and the second is the German patent with number 270852 of July 13 – 1913, on the patent drawings you can see how complicated and ingenious the mechanism is. If you look at the mechanism from the inside you will also see solidity.

The Box:

The differences between the box of the Flersheim version and the Bonnet version are clearly visible

The operation is as follows: after turning the mechanism, the figure vibrates forward, after a short time the dishes are thrown into the air and the figure falls backwards. Then the dishes must be gathered together again, placed on the support rod and the rod with the dishes must be pushed back into the bottom dish that is fixed between the hands.

Carl Bagessen, born in 1858 in Denmark.
In 1895 he was a contortionist at Cirque Rancy in Lyon, under the name “Corkscrew Man”.
He also had a comedy act very similar to our toy in action where he drops a huge pile of plates on the floor.
For twenty years, Bagessen brought this act to all the variety theaters in the world.

Explanetion of the “triangel” mark sign on toys

On many toys from around 1887 till the thirty’s of the last century, we see a triangular symbol with a number below it on the boxes of toys and even on the toys.
This symbol was once invented by the”La Chambre Syndicale des Fabricants de Jouets Français”, of which Fernand Martin was a board member and even once chairman, in the thirty’s of the last century the triangle probably had lost any meaning and disappeared.

This symbol was a sing of quality from a French manufacturer.

The manufacturer who wishes to make use of this mark only has to justify his quality of French manufacturer, and to pay the registration fee for the serial number of the police in perpetuity, a fee which amounts to a single sum of five francs.

FACTORY BRAND
FRENCH TOY
The Trade Union Chamber of French Toy Manufacturers filed with the Registry of the Commercial Court of the Seine, June 1, 1886, under number 23,795, a trademark of which we give the facsimile.
The Chambre Syndicale, with the aim of developing national industry, grants authorization to use this mark to any French industrialist who so requests.
It is enough to justify its quality as a French manufacturer.
For information, contact the Chambre Syndicale on the third Friday of each month, Hôtel Moderne, place de la République.

Each toy manufacturer that was allowed to use this symbol received a separate number.
Fernand Martin’s factory was registered under number 138

Some examples of the “triangel” mark sign on toys, catalogue or toy box of various manufacturers with their number

Excerpt from the original report: group: Class 100 section Bimbeloterie
There was a colossal statue personifying the Toy Fairy distributing toys.
The French toy exhibition included 63 exhibitors representing a wide variety of branches of the toy industry.
One of them was Mr. Fernand Martin, former president of the Trade union Chamber of the manufacturers of toys and games.
(Reporter, Mr. A. Chauvin.)

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire (Product number unknown)

Here we present :

Name: Le Corsaire
Number: Product number unknown
Year of first production: 1932 ??
Dimensions: 18 cm x ?? cm / 7 inch x ?? inch

After the relocation of the production of the Victor Bonnet factory in 1933, we no longer find pistols in the product range.
Probably is that the Victor Bonnet & Cie-in-liquidation, sold the patents and trademarks of guns/pistols to JEP.

In one of my previous blogs I mentioned that the Le Deverseur was only found with a French label on top of the box and for the Englisch market with a Englisch instruction label inside on the bottom of the box..

I’ve seen one now one, with all the labels in English.
Below you can also see on the box label that the name has been changed in : Self Unloading Waggon.

The label on top of the box, the instructions for use picture on the side of box and the separate instructions for use are all in the English language.

The separate user manual card is executed in two languages, French and Englisch, in the right photo you can see that he is not called “Waggon” as on the box label but “Lorry”

This is a very early toy from 1885
Length approx. 17,8 cm/ 7 inches
Height approx. 12,5 cm/ 5 inches

No final product number is known for this toy.
In the book by Lourens Bas : Toymaker in Paris 1878 – 1912 he is listed under number 16 on page 45 but we now know that the numbering of the “first” period is completely different, see my article https://fernandmartintoys.nl/the-numbering-of-the-fernand-martin-first-period-who-can-help-me/

It has long remained unknown how this toy looked like but an article written by Renaud Fournier in the Antique Toy World Magazine of december 2016 mentions that one copy was found at a French auction, but a second copy has since been found at a French auction at Galerie de Chartres January 2022 at Le Coudray.
This toy is very fragile and both found pieces have missing parts such as broken hands, arms and heads.

These toys also appear not to be made of cardboard, as is stated in the book by Lourens Bas: Toymaker in Paris 1878 – 1912, but of tinplate and cast metal.
The front is lithographed and the back is blank tinplate.
The whole rests on two transverse strips.
The three figures are flexibly mounted on a rod.
On the front is written at the top the word Massacre and at the bottom in small FM Bté S.G.D.G. Paris Modele Déposé.

In the past, this toy will have been delivered in a box with one or more small balls to try to knock over one or more of the three figures.
The figures are a devil, a polichinelle and a pierrot made of cast metal.

We are not yet 100% sure from catalog images or the sales box whether this is really a Martin, but there are a few indications that this is a Martin:

• the reuse of the devil figure in the Le Jeu De Force from 1884 and the Le Diable En Boîte from 1890.
• the text : FM Bté S.G.D.G. Paris Modele Déposé, which can also be found practically written in the same way on other toys from that time such as the Les Joyeux Danseurs and the Les Courageux Scieurs De Long….

Photos of the toy: Jeu De Massacre, courtesy Renaud Fournier and Galerie de Chartres

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire ??

Here we present :

Name: Le Costaud
Number: 266
Year of first production: 1931
Dimensions: 14,5 cm x 11,5 cm / 5,7 inch x 4,53 inch

Patent number is FR 730.021 d.d. April 04-1931

After the relocation of the production of the Victor Bonnet factory in 1933, we no longer find pistols in the product range.
Probably is that the Victor Bonnet & Cie-in-liquidation, sold the patents and trademarks of guns/pistols to JEP.

first production date : 1912
production number: 227
height: 19 cm / 7,5 inch produced by Georges Flersheim

After winding, his head moves and his right hand goes spinning over the chestnuts, his left hand moves with the lid of the kettle.

Roasted sweet chestnuts were already sold in Rome in the sixteenth century. In Paris they were roasted and sold on the spot on the street, nowadays there are still many European places where they are offered on the street.

This street scene is of course also seen by toy manufacturers and like so many street scenes there was an ingenious inventor who designed a toy out of it.
I found an article in the magazine La Nature from 1911 with a description and picture of a “Le Marchand de Marrons” that looks very much like the Flersheim version.

The original inventor of this toy is Mr. Raoul Maurin from Paris. Source picture : (Cnum – Digital Conservatory of Arts and Crafts – http://cnum.cnam.fr magazine La Nature 1911

As is well known, Fernand Martin has bought many inventions from the small inventors in his career, this toy came from the old Martin portfolios, Martin had bought the design of this toy at the Concours Lepine in 1911 and Flersheim patented them under his name. Note:
Flersheim acquired with the company all Martin’s patents and this one is one of them.

Released with different logos and texts and the winding key at the bottom.

Maker: Fernand Martin

Year: 1897

Number: 159

Dimensions: High 20 cm ( 7,9 inch) Long 15 cm ( 5,9 inch)

This very rare toy is driven by a rubber band, Martin used this rubber band a lot in his first period.
A man pumps water from a village pump.
Many working figures are unknown and this toy had a real working pump.
Water had to be put in the container under the pump and after winding up the rubber band, the man started pumping and the water came out of the pump.

If you look at the drawing you can recognize the working of the pump.

I have seen this toy with the man in two differend colors, yellow en red. This man was also used by Martin in other toys such as the La Famille vélo from 1897, the Le Monocycle aérien from 1896 and with a toy which I previously wrote a piece about but is unknown so far, see my blog: https://fernandmartintoys.nl/did-i-found-an-unknown-martin-toy-or-not/

In the next Ladenburger Toyauction there is one Martin toy with Lot number 017 but there are many more other beautiful pieces in this auction
We are pleased to present you this catalog in German and English language.

For the complete overview, Auction terms & Info, Shipping & Payment look at this site:
https://www.spielzeugauktion.de/?&lang=en

Le Pompier L’Echelle – (the fireman) – Martin number 197bis. This model was made by Victor Bonnet from 1919.

The price is in Euro € and without Buyer’s Premium and subject to errors.
Always check the auction site for the results.

Regarding the objects described in this article, I do not make a statement about authenticity, condition or value.
I advise interested collectors always do to research yourself, to view the object or to contact the seller / auction

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire ??

Here we present :

Name: Le Sans-Balle
Number: 264
Year of first production: 1929
Dimensions: 9,5 cm x 7 cm / 3,75 inch x 2,8 inch

In the next Ladenburger Toyauction there is one Martin toy with Lot number 017 but there are many more other beautiful pieces in this auction
We are pleased to present you this catalog in German and English language.

For the complete overview, Auction terms & Info, Shipping & Payment look at this site:
https://www.spielzeugauktion.de/?&lang=en

Le Pompier L’Echelle – (the fireman) – Martin number 197bis. This model was made by Victor Bonnet from 1919.

After the auction, I will publish the realized price for this Martin.

Regarding the objects described in this article, I do not make a statement about authenticity, condition or value.
I advise interested collectors always do to research yourself, to view the object or to contact the seller / auction

We all know the chestnut vendor “Chauds les Marrons” , it was produced by Georges Flersheim but Fernand Martin bought the rights during the annual “Concours Lepine” in 1911.

Here an article from I found in the magazine “La Nature” from 1911 of the “original” toy.

A free translation:

TOYS

The chestnut vendor.
Here comes winter.
The chestnut merchant sets up his itinerant shop under a doorway or on a street corner and offers passers-by a bargain.
The one shown in our drawing is very natural.
With one hand he stirs the contents of the pan, with the other hand he keeps the circle and the movement of his head towards the oranges and chestnuts, kept warm under a cloth, very clearly indicating that he offers his goods to passers-by.
How does it all work?
The circular movement of the right arm, the one that stirs the chestnuts, is done by means of a rod A, driven by the spring mechanism placed in B, and crossing the pan to direct the hand using a pin C.
The head is driven by a rod D taken eccentrically and hidden in the body of the man from the “Auvergne” (province in France)
The inventor is mr. Raoul Maurin, 24 rue de Belfort, Paris.

I will soon make another blog with more details and things worth knowing about this toy.

The early period of the pavements in Paris around 1900

With the increase in traffic on the streets of Paris in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was necessary to cover the ground with a homogeneous material that was easy to drive on and walk on.
At that time, there were 5 options: large cobblestones, small pitted cobblestones, wooden cobblestones, asphalt or macadam.
These five different types of pavement were successively used in the city, each with their advantages and disadvantages.
The method of paving with wooden cobblestones received a lot of enthusiasm at the time and was the first option developed.
Made of pine, these wooden pavers were laid perpendicular to the road and then sealed with bitumen.
The wooden pavers were finally abandoned completely after 1930 in favor of stone pavers.

So around the turn of the 20e century and long afterwards you could see the asphalt workers in the streets.
A wagon with boiling hot asphalt was pulled by a horse.
The asphalt was poured into buckets and distributed over the existing wooden cobblestones in the streets and on the sidewalks.
A tough and hot job.

Fernand Martin made a toy as a result of these diligent workers and put it on the market in 1903
The toy is about 26 cm / 10,2 inch long and was powered by a clockwork.
The man at the back is also driven by this clockwork, which makes it seem as if he rotates a rod, you can also see the same rod on the images of the real asphalt wagons.

Fernand Martin number 194

This article is published in the June 2023 issue of ANTIQUE TOY WORLD monthly magazine. After publication in the ATW, this article has been slightly modified in a few places

These boxes contain very different toys than we know from Fernand Martin.
At the end of 1900, many toy manufacturers made little figures, mostly from tin/lead, wood, tinplate or a mixture of wood flour and glue, in Germany called “Masse” (such as Elastolin, Lineol etc.).

The smallest Martin figures like the chickens, ducks, goose etc. are made of tin/lead and massive.
The bigger Martin figures like the cows, dogs, sheep, building, fences, persons etc. are made of two kinds of metal, I tested them all with a magnet, the bottom plate is magnetic so tinplate and the figures, animals, etc. are not magnetic.
I think they are made of pewter (a ductile metal alloy of tin and other metals ) and soldered / welded to the bottom plate.
They are not massive but hollow on the inside, which makes them very light and all painted by hand.
These boxes have the Martin number 165 and were produced from 1898.

Number 165:

On this original catalog image are various numbers and texts.
The numbers are clear, what is striking is that number 5 is missing.
The first three numbers are about a village,
From number 4 and 6 till 9 you see behind each number 4 names
The translation of these names in English are : menangerie— farm —hunting scene and shepherd.
So there must be a total of 23 different boxes
These boxes are very rare, but I have received two pictures from Frédéric Marchand of a box with a hunting scene.

On the box is also the text “No” but the number is not visible anymore and probably written earlier in pencil and almost completely disappeared in the last more than 120 years.
I tried to “edit” the image and I could very badly discover that there might have been a 7.

In my collection I have a nice group of a shepherd with his sheep and a group of a farmer with animals, both without the box.

This shepherd with his sheep was purchased from a large French toy dealer and he told me that these were determined by Frédéric Marchand as Martins, (Bergerie) but which box number is unknown.
The figures themselves do not have an FM logo or the like and I don’t know if it is complete.
The shepherd is about 7 cm high (2.76 inch) and the farmer is about 5,5 cm high ( 2,17 inch).

Number 166:

Boxes with wooden and hand painted decorations with number 166.
These boxes with background decorations were sold complete with figures and animals, on the catalog pages is mentioned the text: “Animaux modelés d’après nature”, and that’s translated: “Animals modeled after nature“
I count a total of 12 different boxes on the catalog page, but the numbers 20-21-22 and 50-51-52 are still a mystery to me!

But I found a little more.
One of the old original Fermand Martin catalogs contains an image of other boxes with animals and figures.
This box is not numbered in the catalog but is depicted immediately after the box number 165 “Jouets en Boites“.
This box contains figures and animals.
The French text is: Animaux & sujets en vrac. assortis à la grosse and that means: Animals & subjects in bulk. Assorted by the dozen. So they are extension boxes for the boxes with number 165 and 166 “.
According to the picture there are 3 different boxes with each a different assortment.

In this image of the Extension box: assortment number 2, you can also clearly see from the box of the Shepherd (Bergerie) and the box of the Farm (Ferme), the both type of sheep, cow, goat, donkey, dog, farmer and some of the animals from the box Hunting (Chasse) the wild boar, deer, fence and the two dogs.

The catalog image “Extension box: assortment number 2” is not depicted in the book “Fernand Martin Toymaker in Paris 1878-1912”.
The toys that belonged to the numbers 163 to 166 were not clear to both authors at the time the book was made. ( see their comments on page 101 in this book )

On an original poster by Fernand Martin from 1902 with a lot of toys from that time, there is an image with 12 pigs, with this image it is stated: Animaux sur cartes (Animals On Card). The card is marked FM in a circle and the well-known triangle with 138. So I assume that there were several different replenishment cards to supplement the boxes, whether these cards were given a separate number is unknown to me until now.

What also appears is that these same figures were probably also used in the articles with the numbers 131 to 143 from 1894.

Conclusion:

In the book “Fernand Martin Toymaker in Paris 1878-1912” p. 101-102 the toys that belonged to the numbers 163 to 166 were not clear to both authors at the time the book was made. ( see their comments on page 101 in this book ) This article has brought some clarity, but there is still a lot is unclear.
In this article I present the articles numbered 165 and 166.
In the list of Martin articles in the period 1897 – 1898, there are two numbers left (numbers 163 and 164) of which we do not know for which article these are.
There is a possibility that these two numbers are for the “expansion boxes” and/or for the “animals on card”, but I have no proof of that yet.
Furthermore, the numbering on the original catalog page with article number 166 with the wooden boxes is still unclear.
It appears that many different boxes were sold with many different figures in each box, an enumeration of these is almost impossible.

Perhaps there are more figurines and boxes to be found among collectors.
If you have something like that, please let me know so that the “Martin” puzzle becomes a little more complete.

According to the Martin book: Fernand Martin Toymaker in Paris. page 110 there are two versions of the L’ homme de corvée, Martin number 173, in the text on this page it is not clear why they differ. They both have different clothes and a different cap

This toy is mentioned in a French newspaper from 1900 and in the text in this newspaper it is mentioned that there are a French soldier and an English sailor.

Part of the text from the article: LES JOUETS DE L’ANNÉE in the French newspaper: Le Patriote de la Vendée 1900, Journal de Politique, Agricole et Commercial, Organe d’union Républicaine.

Translation: Then it is the “L’ homme de corvée”, a small French soldier or English sailor, depending on the country of destination, who operates a broom

I found another article in the magazine: La Charente December 18, 1900 indicating that the English sailor toy was produced especially for the English market.
a part of the text of that article:
Les Jouets Du Nouvel An
–Then there is – the “L’ homme de corvée” – a small English sailor or an French soldier, who operates a broom, the name depending on the country of destination.–

A catalog page /box label is known. It is also not known if two different boxes were released or if they were both sold in the same box, I presume in the same box as the instructions for use are written on this label are in French, English and Spanish.

Photos courtesy Bertoia Auctions, Catalog label and postcard are from my own collection. French newspaper article source gallica.bnf.fr: Le Patriote de la Vendée 1900, Journal de Politique, Agricole et Commercial, Organe d’union Républicaine

In a few previous blogs I showed postcards depicting Martin toys.

fernand-martin-and-postcards

personal-postcard-from-fernand-martin

postcards-with-martin-toys

I have now been able to add a new postcard to my collection depicting a Martin toy and a few other French toys, on this card you can see the Le Petit Livreur

On the front of this postcard is the text : Jouets d’enfants mécaniques et á traction. On the back Grands magasins parisiens and the date 1920
This postcard is made in France 1995

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire ??

Here we present :

Name: Tape_Fort
Number: 262
Year of first production: 1929
Dimensions: 11,5 cm x 9 cm / 4,5 inch x 3,5 inch

This toy and old games magazine was the magazine of the Society of lovers of old toys and games, called Amateurs de jouets et jeux anciens.
Founded in 1905 by Henry René d’Allemagne, Léo Claretie and Arthur Maury
It counted, among other illustrious members, Sarah Bernhardt, the prefect of Police Lépine, Fernand Martin, Maugin, Rollet, the Baroness of Rothschild, the Duchess of Uzès and many more.

The Society had its headquarters at 215 Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris
I don’t know how many editions there have been but my copy is number 26 5th volume July – August 1909.

The first issue has the name Les Jouets et Jeux Anciens, this name has been changed in January 1907 in a new name: L’art & L’enfant.
The company will disappear with the First World War, probably the last number was number 55 from July-August 1914.

These illustrated bulletins are very rare because they were not sold but provided only to the members of the society.

The first volume published was in June 1905. The issue’s are abundantly illustrated with figures and plates, sometimes in color. This first issue contains a list of members with a total of 82 names.

In the toy book of Mary Hiller Automata & Machanical Toys from 1976 on page 165 you can read: A report from one such meeting in 1906 told of a cinematograph show witch not only pictured work going on at the factory of Fernand Martin but ended with little dramatic scenes wher the actors were actually the Martin “bonshommes”. Fernand Martin attended this meeting and was held at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers on April 1 -1906

I received a copy of this report, which included the following text:

Translation:
Then the whole series of well-known mechanical toys was paraded before us that are manufactured in the factory of Mr. Fernand Martin. Cinematographic films presented the workshops and the tools of this manufacture; hands showed the toys being made, turning them, turning them over, while the lecturer gave the explanation (very curious effect).
Then, finally, the cinematograph projected amusing and dramatic scenes, the actors of which were Mr. Martin’s’s mechanical little bonshommes.

Now we have to find this movie(s) , does this movie(s) still exist??? or is this movie(s) somewhere in an archive, maybe we’ll never know?

Special thanks to Mr. Claude Lamboley for providing the necessary information and images

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire 269 ??

Here we present :

Name: Le Pétard
Number: 258
Year of first production: 1927
Dimensions: 11 cm x 8,5 cm / 4,5 inch x 3,35 inch

Here is a link to a catalog by Victor Bonnet from about 1929.
I found this catalog on the site of ATCA (Antique Toy Collectors of America) I only saw that they have a wrong date 1902, the Victor Bonnet period started in 1919 till 1933

Here the link to the ATCA: https://atca-club.org

The ATCA is a group of collectors who delight in the history and preservation of toys, who exchange information about toys, and willingly share their knowledge with other members and the public. We are all passionate in our collecting and seeking and encourage others who relive childhood dreams through the joy of collecting antique toys.
I have been given permission to post a link to this catalog in my blog.
Have fun browsing.

first production date : 1899
production number: 169
height: 20 cm / 7,87 inch produced by Fernand Martin

After winding up, this goose walks forward step by step, in a very natural way, moving its neck from left to right in the tempo of its walk.

This goose was found with several different Martin keys and is marked on the bottom right with the round FM logo

The accompanying text to this figure is:
Finally we find a goose gently shaking its neck, swinging from side to side, following the favorite movement of these birds, advancing little by little: “with majestic slowness”.
These small automatons are manufactured by Mr. Fernand Martin manufacturer of iron automatic and mechanical toys 88 Boulevard Menilmontant in Paris

In an earlier article I also wrote about this goose, it was then that the image of this goose was used on an edition of a piece of music composed by AD. Gauwin.

This very rare and original stereo glass plate is in the private possession of Bruno Cirla and Christophe Feraud from Massilia Toys in Marseille
The photo was taken at the World Exhibition in Liège, Belgium in 1905 by Jules Richard.

Jules Richard was a French photographer, businessman and instrument maker. He was the inventor and manufacturer of the Verascope stereographic cameras.

If you look closely at the photo you can clearly see that on the table are a whole group of Fernand Martin toys.

On the left you see a part of een statue ( in white the base and in black a part of the table ) this colossal statue was a personifying the Toy Fairy distributing toys.

On the side of: www.worldfairs.info there is an report of this World exhibition in Liège in 1905. you can read that there were toys in the section “BIMBELOTERIE” , in the names you can recognize that they must be Fernand Martin toys.

The French text: …les petits automates: la portière, la boulangère, la marchande d’oranges, le pompier, l’avocat gesticulant au bout de ses grandes et larges manches, le pianiste véhément, le cuisinier et combien d’autres encore.

Translation: …the little automatons: the portress, the baker, the orange seller, the fireman, the lawyer gesticulating at the end of his big and wide sleeves, the vehement pianist, the cook and how many others besides.

An overview of the contents of the new Antique Toy World Magazine July 2023 :

Antique Toy World is the leading publication for toy collectors worldwide.

Published since 1970.
Antique Toy World is a monthly magazine published in the USA by Dale Kelley, the magazine’s founder, editor and publisher.

To subscribe go to https://antiquetoyworld.com/about-atw/
Email: ads@antiquetoyworld.com

This article is published in the August 2020 issue of the ATW Antique Toy World magazine. https://antiquetoyworld.com/about-atw/

Updated version with new facts:

S.I.J.I.M.
This toy maker from Paris made very nice toys.
This manufacturer is named S.I.J.I.M. and the director was Prosper Lévi.
He started his factory in 1909 but the firm ceased to exist in 1913 or 1914.
S.I.J.I.M. means: Société Industrielle de jouets et d’inventions mécaniques.

Prosper Lévi had his trademarks protected in France on July 23, 1909 and internationally on September 20, 1909.

REGISTRATIONS MADE AT THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE.
The INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION of obove trademarks is done through the intermediary of the administration of the country of origin of the trademark. It currently provides trademarks with legal protection in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and in Tunisië

We know very little about this company, maybe we will find out more in the future and maybe we will find unknown catalogs.
He has not made many different pieces but what he made was beautiful.

Between the S.I.J.I.M. factory and the Fernand Martin factory was in 1912 a lawsuit, this lawsuit was about the Le Rapide Livreur from S.I.J.I.M. and the Petit Livreur from Fernand Martin.
Prosper Lévy from (S.I.J.I.M.) accused Fernand Martin having committed plagiarism.

If you look closely at Lévi’s patent you will see in the header a text in squared brackets.
translation: [ Guarantee certificate delivered to M. Jules Boucheron (of whom Mr. Lévi is assignee) on the occasion of the 10th Lépine Contest of toys and articles de Paris opend in Paris the August 12, 1910]

It just means that Jules Boucheron assigned his invention to Mr. Lévi at the occasion of the 10th Lépine Contest.
This means that Mr Lévi was not the inventor of this toy but that was Jules Boucheron.
Jules Boucheron was a small inventor probably without production opportunities and infrastructure.
Many toy manufacturers including Martin bought the rights from small inventors at the “Concours Lépine”.

In July 1914 Fernand Martin give a statement on the alleged allegations of plagiarism and the resulting lawsuit as mentioned above:
COMMUNICATES
We receive from our colleague, Mr. Fernand Martin, the following note with a request to insert: We are pleased to take that the infringement action brought by Mr. Levi against Mr. F. Martin, for a toy called “The Delivery Person” will not be followed up, Mr. Levi having recognized that it is wrongly and without right gull has assigned Mr. Martin in infringement. For his part, Mr. Martin, in the presence of this declaration, waived his claim for damages. The case is therefore closed.

Martin kept his “Petit Livreur” in production and it was equally produced till in the 1930’s by Victor Bonnet and probably even into the 1950s bye his sons.

The best selling and known toy was the organ grinder: le joueur d’orgue, even till nowadays this is often referred to as a Martin. But you can see on the box and on the catalog page that it is clearly a S.I.J.I.M. toy.

But S.I.J.I.M. has also made less well-known pieces.
See these two pages of a catalog of S.I.J.I.M.

These two pages contain the following toys.
Number 32 La Poussette. (The Stroller)
Number 33 Le Joueur d’orgue. (The Organ Player)
Number 34 Les Chevaux Hygieniques (Hygienic Horses)
Number 35 L’apprenti Cavalier. (The Rider Apprentice)
Number 36 Le Rapide Livreur (The Fast Delivery Man)
I don’t know if more toys are made because it is weird to start with number 32.
There is 1 piece which is probably also made by S.I.J.I.M., it is the Le Saute Mouton. (The leap frog)
This, Le Saute Mouton. (The leap frog), toy was depicted in a magazine from the Choumara Paris store in 1912 together with other S.I.J.I.M. , Martin and other toys.

From 1897 many toy manufacturers place the famous triangle with the text “Article Francais” and around it the text “Marque Deposee” , under the triangle a number, this sign was exclusively granted by the Chambre Syndicale des Fabricants de Jouets to French toymakers who requested it. The number just reflects the order of the request in the sequence of the requests.
So this number was different per manufacturer.
Take a good look at the catalog page, you will also see this triangle by S.I.J.I.M. has been given number 248.
Martin had the number 138, here you can see how important this number could be to find out which manufacturer has produced a toy.

Mr Lévi made his own toys and many toys are in the “style” of the Fernand Martin and Flersheim toys.
And not without success because his models are very beautiful.
Like many toy manufacturers, a lot of ideas was copied from competitors.
As an example, compare the boy in the chair of Martin ( Le jeune ecuyer ) and the one of Lévi (L’apprenti Cavalier) same “idea” but with a different chair position and a different moving action. Who borrowed from whom ??

The mechanisms of these S.I.J.I.M. toys are different from those of Martin, often more sophisticated and of a better quality and therefore more expensive to produce.
However, this did not result in a higher selling price than Fernand Martin/ Flersheim’s toys, but lack of profitability seems to be the reason for the cessation of activity in 1913 or 1914 just before the start of the First World War.
Now most of these S.I.J.I.M. toys are rarer than Martin, Flersheim and Victor Bonnet toys and are traded at very good prices.

A thank you to Frederic Marchand for the permission to use the two catalog pages and the additional information.

All toys with without reference are from my collection

cor@vanschaijk.com

Blog: www.fernandmartintoys.nl

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire 269 ??

Here we present :

Name: Bombarde
Number: 257
Year of first production: 1925
Dimensions: 11,5 cm x 8,5 cm / 4,5 inch x 3,35 inch

Patent number is FR 617259_A d.d. October 10-1925

See the catalog of the 97th Toy Auction online!

This auction features more than 2200 items of tin toys, trains, figures and model cars and this time with two Fernand Martin / Victor Bonnet toys.

This is a room bidding but you can also take part in the online bidding live via telephone, register your written predids or using the auction platforms lot-tissimo, the-saleroom and liveauctioneers and Sixbid you are able to to bid online. So you can submit your bids in real time during the auction. Therefor it is necessary to register on the platform of your choice not later than 24 hours before the auction starts.

The easiest way to participate in our auctions is to use our online catalogue. Here you can view all the items and directly place written pre-bids. See the catalog in the link below. You can also read the catalog in English

Catalog : https://auktionen.anticomondo.de/en/objekte?aid=50&Lstatus=0

We hope you enjoy reading and browsing through the new catalog!

The result prices are in Euro € and without Buyer’s Premium and subject to errors.
Always check the auction site for the results.

Regarding the objects described in this article, I do not make a statement about condition or value.
I advise interested collectors always do to research yourself, to view the object or to contact the seller / auction

A fairly unknown toy from 1889.
A man standing on a platform and beats the drum and the cymbals of the rubber band mechanism.

This toy has been given product number 111

We also know that Martin got his ideas from everywhere.
I saw in an old catalog: La nouvelle revue parisienne from 1894 an advertisement for a shooting game consisting of a rifle and a target, but on top of the target is a figure.
If you hit the target the figure hits the bass drum and the cymbals.

Martin probably noticed this too and 5 years later he made a toy out of it and put it on the market, now with a rubber band mechanism, after winding up, the man hits the bass drum and the cymbals.

If you ever want to visit Amsterdam, be sure to visit this antique center, it is definitely worth it for toy collectors.

The Antiques Centre Amsterdam is a paradise for the connoisseur of unique objects from all different periods and styles. At a floor space of over 1700 m2 you will find not only a wide and surprising range of 17th, 18th and 19th century antiques and Art Deco, but also art, bric-à-brac, stylish vintage and designs of the fifties, sixties and seventies.

The Antiques Centre Amsterdam is the largest indoor antique market of the Netherlands. We have an enormous selection, provided by 55 specialized antique dealers, who offer a constantly changing and very impressive collection of antique jewellery, splendid lighting, crystal chandeliers, silver, special miniatures, objects the vertu, tableware, military objects, toys, rare ceramics, delicate porcelain, Murano glass, impressive bronze statues, Delft Blue, paintings, wall decorations and even small furniture. And besides all this there are also different display cases with unique and special collector’s items for sale.

Whatever you are looking for, you will find it at the Antiques Centre Amsterdam. Whether it is to decorate your house, a utensil, an original gift, an acquisition for your collection or a striking prop for a photoshoot.

The Antiques Centre Amsterdam is located in the centre of Amsterdam, at the Elandsgracht 109. The Elandsgracht is the gateway to the popular shopping area The Nine Streets.

From the different display cases with unique and special collector’s items are display cases with antique toys. Toys from the well-known toys from manufacturers known to us, including of course Fernand Martin.
The stock changes constantly because the various traders replenish their sold items.

Antiekcentrum Amsterdam
Elandsgracht 109
1016 TT Amsterdam

Tel: +31 (0)20 624 90 38
info@antiekcentrumamsterdam.nl

Open:
Monday: 11:00 – 18:00
Tuesday: closed
Wednesday: 11:00 – 18:00
Thursday: 11:00 – 18:00
Friday: 11:00 – 18:00
Saturday: 11:00 – 17:00
Sunday: 11:00 – 17:00

Pictures courtesy :
Barry and Leo van der Waal
Arnaud ter Haak of the Antique Center Amsterdam

updated version:

In a previous blog from 13 April, I show you a drawing of the Rabbit from Martin, this drawing was made by Louis Poyet.

Louis Poyet (born in Saint-Etienne, 1846 – died in Paris, 1913) was a draftsman, etcher and French illustrator known for his work that he made together with scientists, industrialists and engineers.

Louis Poyet moved to Paris and in 1877 he opened his own print studio.

His workshop had around 40 craftsmen
He started working for Gaston Tissandier as an Illustrator / writer for the La Nature magazine, for which he continued to work until his death.
He signed with “Poyet” and sometimes “L. Poyet”.

He has made many beautiful etchings for Martin that have been published in, among others, the magazine: La Nature

He also worked on several books and magazines so as:

-The book of Charles Masson, published in 1884 entitled: The scientific recreation for education and play.

-The magazine: Le Chercheur from Arthur Good

-Poyet was also one of the industrial illustrators of images for the book series Les Grandes Usines published by Michel Levy from 1876 till 1881.

-In 1889 he worked for Tom Tit (pseudonym of Arthur Good engineer) with which he worked on:
The Recreational Science section in the L’Illustration magazine
The Fun Science a booklet with 100 Experiments, with 115 Drawings in 1890.
This first booklet was again published in 1893 and then followed by two completely new editions.

The success factor of this series was enormous
Translations were sold in 1891 in Spain, England, the United States, Scandinavia, Russia.
There are around 130 different editions of these three volumes, released until the 1920s.

To complete the circle, one of Martin’s toys, the Le “Tom Tit” Martin number 157 (See in the 2014 book: Fernand Martin toymaker in Paris on page 95 ) was based on one of the experiments from Tom Tit; La rotation de la Terre

Below you see on the left the drawing from the book “La Science Amusant” van Tom Tit, this drawing was made by Louis Poyet, on the right an image from a page of a catalog by Fernand Martin

After the death of Louis Poyet in 1913 his studio was taken over by his sons Roger in Raphael, under the name “Poyet Brothers”.

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
the list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire 269 ??

Here we present :

Name: Flac
Number: 256
Year of first production: 1927
Dimensions: 8,5 cm x 7 cm / 3,35 inch x 2,76 inch

Victor Bonnet produced various tin pistols in the period from 1919 to 1933.
The number we know now is 8 pieces but maybe we will discover more.
The list of the pistols known so far is:

The Victor Bonnet list with pistol models with article numbers
Le Pan-Pan 247
Flac 256
Bombarde 257
Le Pétard 258
Tape_Fort 262
Le Sans-Balle 264
Le Costaud 266
Le Corsaire 269 ??

Here we present :

Name: Le Pan pan
Number: 247
Year of first production: 1919
Dimensions: 11,5 cm x 9 cm / 4,5 inch x 3,5 inch

This toy is a platform employee of a train station and dated from 1894.
In the books known to us, this toy has the Martin product number 48, but the latest discoveries show that there are two models and that they are numbered 123 and 124.

This person was responsible for transporting passengers suitcases, luggage and packages to and from the trains.

These two versions are different, there is one version with a flywheel drive and another with a mechanical wind-up drive. These two different versions are clearly distinguishable. The version with flywheel has one tin case for the cart, in this case the flywheel is hidden.

These two different versions can be clearly distinguished.
The version with a flywheel has one tin case for the cart, in this case is hidden the flywheel.

The version with the mechanical drive is relatively unknown, I only discovered one copy in the collection of the French museum Musée des arts and Métiers – Le cnam.
The version with the winding mechanism is presumably provided with two paper-wrapped packages. (see the pictures in this museum)

As the photos of the museum contain a copyright, I cannot show it here, but a digital visit to the site is worth looking at, see this link:
https://phototheque.arts-et-metiers.net/?idPageWeb=95
enter the keyword “Fernand Martin” at “rechercher“.
The photos you can find at the numbers 0000558_052 up to and including 0000558_056 and at the numbers 0001664-045 and 0000558-174

On the drawing below and on the photos of the museum you can see that a different model key has been used here, this is one of the deviations from the keys known to us that Martin normally used.

On this catalog page the drawing is of the version with mechanism and if you look closely you can see at the bottom left of the drawing:
Number 123 — avec volant . (Translated: with flywheel)
Number 124 — mechanique. (Translated: with Mechanism)

A super rare toy.

On YouTube, Mr. Jean Brun from France has made 5 beautiful videos about Fernand Martin toys and his successors.
The lyrics are in French but the video’s are still beautiful to look at.
These videos can be viewed below.

These 5 video’s together are almost 80 min, so take your time, to make them that must have been a lot of work and time.

These YouTube videos are also listed separately in my menu under: “FIND ARTICLE“, the search page for specific articles; chapter 6 – Movies, I have had these videos in my “FIND ARTICLE” menu page for several weeks now, but now I bring them to your attention so that you can see and enjoy them.

first production date : 1912
production number: 229
height: 20 cm / 7,87 inch produced by Georges Flersheim

I have never seen a box with a label myself, but in the book: Fernand Martin Toy Maker in Paris 1878-1912 by Lourens Bas and Arthur Verdoorn, a label is depicted on page 188

This street scene is of course also seen by toy manufacturers and like so many street scenes there was an ingenious inventor who designed a toy out of it.
I found an article in the magazine La Nature from 1911 with a description and picture of a “Le Petit Patineur” that looks very much like the Flersheim version.

The original inventor of this toy is Mr. Boucheron, 4, rue de l’Eglise, in Vitry-sur-Seine . Source picture : (Cnum – Digital Conservatory of Arts and Crafts – http://cnum.cnam.fr magazine La Nature 1911

Highlighted by the Phil & Joan Steel collection including Martins & Lehmanns, automatons, penny toys, lucxury autos & race cars from the Bill Gelles racing Collection, early table games, trains & airplanes, and more!

In this auction there are this time a lot of Martin, Flersheim and Bonnet toys and some are very rare but of course there are many more beautiful and interesting toys in this auction.

The Bertoia team is dedicated to offering our quality customer service, experience and support.
Do not hesitate to contact us for assistance with registration, bidding or any other questions.

For the complete overview, Auction terms & Info, Shipping & Payment look at this site: http://www.bertoiaauctions.com/

These result prices are in US $ and without Buyer’s Premium and subject to errors.
Always check the auction site for the results.

Regarding the objects described in this article, I do not make a statement about condition or value.
I advise interested collectors always do to research yourself, to view the object or to contact the seller / auction

Martin started in 1875 with his first attempts to make toys but in 1878 the first real toy was a real swimming fish with patent number 128445 from Jan-01-1879

This Fish is about 19 cm / 7,5 inc long.

In the early days Martin used a rubber band (elastic) as the drive.
By turning it on, the toy started to move.
The system consists mainly of a crank, a rubber band and a movement mechanism.
The drive mechanism was adjusted for each toy, such as up and down, right, left, spinning etc.

The first piece of Martin: the fish from 1878 Poisson Nageur and as you see Martin started with the product number 100

The crank is in the nose, inside the fish is the rubber band and the mechanism is on the tail.

In this demo model you can see clearly the mechanism in operation,
By turning the crank and hold the tail, the rubber band is tightened (twisted)
The other side of the rubber band is hooked onto the movement mechanism, the tail.
When you release the tail again, the tail swings from right to left so that the illusion of swimming is simulated.
Simple but effective.

The only drawback is that the rubber band can age and then break quickly.
If it breaks, the hook and mechanism will fall off and mostly get lost.

Martin sold the patent for a swimming fish with a rubber band engine to the Englisch company Cremer Dolls Toys Games 210 Regent street London and that was the beginning of his fortune, he started in 1880 his first factory.

Martin number: 189

First production in 1902

Dimensions: 13.5 X 15.5 cm / 5,3 inch 6,1 inch

A very nice toy with movement and music. After winding up, the pianist moves his hands from left to right over the keyboard and a piece of music sounds. Even our grandchildren can watch and listen with pleasure to this special piece of history.

This Le Petite Pianiste won a prize in 1901 during the first major Concours Lepine in Paris, during this competition Fernand Martin bought the rights from the inventor Mr. Bosquet, Martin then produced it himself and sales started in 1902. 

From the Le Petite  Pianiste are two versions that do not differ on the outside, the difference is in the melody, one for the French-speaking market and one for the English-speaking market.  

French song: J’ai du bon tabac

Englisch song: God save the King

There is also a very rare version known, the pianist is a woman, I have seen one on the internet, it was part of an collection of an American collector, and the second known was owned by a friend of mine and is currently on display in the toy museum in Germany in the city ​​of Soltau. Even if this version is not an original, it turned out very well.

We see Le petit pianiste with and without hair, it could be that in the later years the competition with the German toy import became too high and cutbacks had to be made, on many toys were cut backs like cheaper material, fewer handling in the production, fewer parts and presumably the wig disappeared from this pianist.

The cuts were not big, but you can also see that with the labels on the boxes, they became smaller, which is a very small cut, but given the very large production, it was ultimately a big cut. less storage, less paper and less glue.

Both pictures from: The English illustrated magazin dec. 1905

At the time, this pianist was already a lot more expensive than other Martin toys, this had to do with the very complex mechanism, which meant that not only the material costs, but especially the labor costs, were a lot higher. But when I see how many are left, he must have sold well.

This article was posted in 2019 but because of new facts, the article has now been edited.

In 1885, Fernand Martin made a bell ringer, Martin number 102, and calling him “Le Sonneur Endiable”, in older Fernand Martin books you see number 14 but that number is wrong and given without proof by the writers.

It is one of the first Martin toy with a lot fun.

But the Georges Flersheim factory took it more then almost 35 years later and re-released it with a few changes.

They renamed him “Je Sonne La Paix” and it got number 246
The “Je Sonne La Paix” is in English: “I ring [for] the peace“, in other words “I ring [to celebrate] the peace” referring the celebration of the end of the WW1 on November 11- 1918, in which Flersheim himself fought and died.

If you look quickly, you see almost no differences but they are indeed there.

Here the differences in detail:

-the Martin version (102) has the FM name stamped on top of the base plate in the Flersheim version (246) no text is stamped on top of this base, but there is a piece of fabric on the side with the name “Je Sonne La Paix” printed on it.

-If you look at both toys at the bottom, you see, under the male figure at the Martin (102) , an elongated piece of iron mounted as a weight and at the Flersheim (246) a solid plate is soldered and stamped the round FM logo on it.

-The Martin version (102) has a rubber band drive, that of Flersheim (246) a long spiral spring in the pole.

-At the top there is a French flag at the Flersheim (246), for this a hollow pipe has been placed in the roof for the iron flagpole with a fabric French flag.

-The bell has also been given a slightly slender shape by Georges Flersheim.

-The roof off number 102 is found with different reliefs, one just like the roof of the 246 in red with tiles and found with stipes in a yellow/gold paint.

It is currently the last piece that is still numbered in the Flersheim period.
It is certain that after the death of Georges Flersheim more, till now, unknown toys were produced, time will tell which and how much.

It is strange that the number 246 has been used twice.
Under this number by Victor Bonnet in 1919, his first produced toy is also numbered 246, it is the “Le Auto Transport” WHY???

The images / pictures used are with courtesy of Michael Bertoia, E.T. and from the own collection

IN DECEMBER 2022 I MADE A BLOG ABOUT THE VERSION OF MR BOUCERON, NOW AN EXTENSIVE INTRODUCTION TO THIS SPECIAL TOY

There are three versions of this toy made by the Fernand Martin factory.
When the key is wound, the cart will go “backward” and the boy’s legs will move as if he were pushing the cart backward himself.

Dimension: length 20 cm / 7.8 inches.
Martin production number 218

It started with the version made by Mr. Boucheron This invention was exhibited on the “Lepine Concours” in 1909 and on this show Martin bought the rights and started to make it a salable version and that resulted in this version:

Martin patented this toy in 1910

Not long after, Fernand Martin sold his factory to Georges Flersheim, who continued to produce some of the old toys, but often with some adjustments, other colors, etc.
Below the performance produced by Georges Flersheim.
The biggest difference is in the design of the closed wheels and the part with the fruit is not so well detailed anymore and of course also the Flersheim key.
Fernand Martin has released various colors of this toy and George Flersheim has also produced a number of color versions.

And then there is also a very special version with a case instead of the fruit, this version is very rare and it is not yet clear whether Martin or Flersheim produced it.
It is possible that this special version was produced on behalf of a customer, on this suitcase you can recognize a label of the large Parisian hotel “Grand Hotel”
This suitcase can also be seen on a special version of the Le Petit Livreur.

Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France

Fernand Martin’s toys were often sold by street vendors and vendors in market stalls on the Paris promenades at the end of the year at Christmas and New Years, but life was hard for these vendors and during the bad weather of that year, practically earned nothing. Read this newspaper article.

Magazine: La Fonde December 1901

Poor street vendors! how sadly they spent the Christmas night that had not turned out to be what they had been waiting for weeks. The long faces, the dull eyes, they watch the rain fall slowly on the asphalt of the sidewalks, driving away the few little walkers. He cries in my heart when it rains on the city, they could have repeated with “Verlaine” (a French poet). Sales were indeed not very fruitful, the day was desperately gloomy yesterday and the evening was hardly more lively. So much effort, energy, patience and ingenuity that these brave people put into this traditional sale for months.

The toy competition organized by Mr Lépine had given the small manufacturers some hope; the public seemed to be interested in these humble inventors, and there was every reason to think that Christmas Eve would be a happy one, bringing a little joy and well-being to the households of the cheap-clothed toymakers. The more than gloomy weather has spoiled all these beautiful hopes, and we must hear the grievances of these poor devils who have made great sacrifices of themselves to promote these people. Small barracks, ugly and clumsy, but part of the old Parisian traditions. “But you managed to make some profit the day before yesterday,” I said to a tall, pale woman, who cast a sad look at the gaudy colored dolls lined up on the edge of her sales bench. “No ma’am. Although the weather was beautiful, and a really big crowd on the boulevard earlier in the evening, it was not the day of shopping. – What do you mean? – I mean by this: The custom is that on Christmas Eve we buy our presents, the day before we will only look, we make our choice, we compare the prices of the toys, but then don’t buy it yet. And lady, the hour of the sale may have come, when the weather is as bad as tonight, you understand that customers are in no rush to visit our stores. “Oh shit, we always think we’re going to make some money and instead we go home with more debt.” It is very unfortunate that instead of this ugly sad rain we did not have a nice evening, cold but very dry. Everyone would have benefited from it: the rich in gaiety, the poor in large pennies. Perhaps the stalls on New Year’s Day had never been so stocked with new and varied trinkets. Several toys had been exhibited in previous toy competitions. But then most were just more or less rough-edged models, here they are fresh and finished in their beautiful bright colors. It is the Santos-Dumont that doubles the platforms of the Eiffel Tower, it is the fighting

Boer ( Le vaillant Boer Martin number 174-176 ? ) in question, who is so ingenious in its simplicity, the latest locomotive,

the automatic city police, ( Les agents Martin number 178).
It is the Englishman fighting an invisible enemy

(Le Gentleman Khaki Martin number 175)
That still others must be mentioned among the mechanical toys. The few shoppers are told what’s new, they ask about the toys seen in the competition; For example, last night an old lady insisted that a merchant tell her where “Le Singe a la marmite” the monkey in the pot, by Frémiet, was sold.

—”It’s for my grandson,” she said, “he will enjoy it very much.”  

— In vain, the shopkeeper offered her the most recent creations of articulated toys. The grandmother persisted. – No, no, it’s “the monkey in the pot” I want, I promised to bring it… “But I tell you I don’t have it,” replied the merchant angrily. Do you know that in order to produce this toy well it would have to be sold very dearly and then not for 2 fr. 95 which we could ask for like for all these dolls. And then, I don’t really want to say it, but this famous monkey is not that beautiful and to amuse children, there is still nothing like these old dolls… I had to smile at this naive joke which failed to convince the grandmother, for I saw her resume her pilgrimage in the rain past the little huts, dimly lit by the dim lights and quivering from the smoky oil lamps. I imitate her and continue my traditional visit to these varied displays, some of which are arranged with taste. Among the toys I find old acquaintances:

the goose that wobbles when he nods his head, ( L’oie Martin number 169)

the laundress who puts her arms in her bathtub,(La Blanchisseuse Martin number 171)

the mower that rhythmically shakes its small scythe (le Faucheur Martin number 170)

Street vendors who can’t afford to “stand on the boardwalk” send swarms of articulate beasts running down the muddy sidewalks: ladybugs, lizards, frogs, cockchafers, seals, it’s as if someone just knocked over Noah’s ark. There’s something for everyone, for all budgets, from the modest two-cent piece to the two-franc piece. Huddled under the porches or shrunk behind the canopies of the shops, the poor devils make a terrible noise to attract the attention of buyers, while looking out for the city police, the “police” as they call them in their own picturesque language. — Ask for the Christmas Angel — The latest novelty of the year. “What doesn’t this Christmas present have?” It’s deafening. And the raging wind violently shakes the huts and blows an icy rain in the faces of the few passers-by. Soon the boulevards are deserted and gloomy. The cafe terraces are empty and it is raining. It’s New Year’s Eve. Groups of night owls trying to be merry still roam as they sing choruses of café music, and as the gusts double their violence, a few revelers are still eating their dinner on New Year’s Eve. – We’re not eating now, I had to say to an old lady yesterday, we were bickering. “Oh! I should be ashamed, she moaned, if, despite my age, I had a stomach as weak as the one my daughter’s friends complain about. And in this connection I remembered the funny song “New Year’s Eve in two parts”, from Charles Monselet, – ( a French journalist, novelist, poet and playwright, nicknamed “the king of the gastronomes”) – But it doesn’t matter, it took hard vices to sustain this earthly lavishness.

MARIE-LOUISE NÉRON.

Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année
Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Boas Festas e um feliz Ano Novo
Kala Christougenna Ki’eftihismenos O Kenourios Chronos
God Jul och Gott Nytt År
Glædelig Jul og godt nytår
Geseende Kerfees en ’n gelukkige nuwe jaar
Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta

We all know that Martin was not the inventor of all his toys himself.
Many of his toys were invented by small toy makers who took their inventions to the annual “Concours de Lépine” a competition in Paris to present and hopefully sell their inventions.
One of these inventors was Mr Boucheron from whom Martin has bought several inventions.
One of these inventions was the L’Autopatte.
On the box and the catalogue page of this Martin toy you can see that it won a “Grand Prix” price on the “Concours Lépine”.
In the magazine “La Nature” from 1909 page 204 a small article of this invention was described the L’auto-pattes

The translated description is as follows:

A production by M. Boucheron that solves wishes.
The L’ Autopatte is a motor vehicle a african boy sits in front of the person falling to the ground that is propelled in circular long durations.
The mechanism is simple.
A lever that performs the functions of the femur is placed in the extended mechanism where it is received in an arc.
A cam enhances this lever to move up and down.
Finally, each leg carries a lever.
The knee joints are more than primary.
The legs hang at the end of the knees.
But when the toy is walking, the controlled bars go up one by one, and the legs take the vertical position by their own weight, and when they are lowered, the legs touch the ground.
As the toy rolls, these feet stay on the ground for a short time and lengthen to return vertically to the next move.
Because this steering is alternate, the feet land on the ground one by one and the africa boy feels in fact he is actually responsible for the propulsion of the vehicle with his feet in reverse. –

Mr. Boucheron lived on the rue Rachel, in Vitry-sur-Seine.

In January 2023 a blog with more about this nice toy

Three “different” versions of the “Le Cab” were made in the period between 1889 and 1919.

These vehicles were the means of transport in the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they were actually the first taxis

THE FIRST VERSION OF THE LE CAB FROM 1889 with number 110:

Fernand Martin launched his first version of the Le Cab in 1889, the differences with the later version from 1903 and 1912 can be recognized by the following points.

The 1889 version compared to the 1903 and 1912 models:
-The carriage had no passenger section. (it’s closed on the front)
-The wheels have 8 spokes, (the 1903 and 1912 versions have 10 spokes)
-Closed-side windows. (Only painted windows in red)
-Driven by a flywheel mechanism.
-This edition has 35 metal separate parts, (that is what you can count on the drawing), to build and complete the hole toy.
That did not include the rein so actually 36 parts in total.

This first version of the Le Cab is very very rare and hard to find, so far I only know a few copies :
–1 in the collection of the Parisian museum: Musée des arts et Métiers this one was part of the gift from Fernand Martin to the museum in 1908, that one has a brown horse.
–1 sold a few years ago at the French dealer l’Orangerie – François Binetruy, this one also came with an original box and a brown horse.
–1 in the Spielmuseum Soltau in Germany with a white horse.
–1 in the collection of a friend of mine with a white horse.
–1 in my own collection with a white horse.
But there will probably still be some other copies in museums or collections over the world.

Below you see an original box label and an image from the original catalog.
If you look very closely you will see differences between the box label and the catalog image.
1- The four corners of the box label are not richly decorated.
2- Below the triangle with number 138 are on the box label data of various gold medals that Martin has won.
3- the “instructions” are different in width and the number of lines is different, on the box label the lines are wider then on the catalog image.
4- Below the legs of the horse the text “Made In France” appears on the catalog image and not on the box label.
5- On the right and left of the FM logo are small decorations on the box label.

As already mentioned there is one known copy complete with box, so very rare and that one has a brown horse.

On the inside of the passenger seat there is the imprint of the Fernand Martin factory

SECOND VERSION WITH THE NUMBER 192 FROM 1903 :

In 1903 Martin released this same toy again in a slightly modified version, now with a passenger section and also open side windows, a clockwork drive and a complete new box label.
It got number 192.

The coach of this 1903 version came in the black / red color combination.
The drive was now a wind-up mechanism and with the recognizable Martin key.
This toy was marked on the inside of the passenger section and on the backsite above the key .

THE FLERSHEIM VERSION WITH THE NUMBER 192 FROM 1912

In the Flersheim period from 1912, the Le Cab was re-released, the version was almost the same as the Martin version from 1903 and the Martin number remained the same with 192.
This version is only marked on the roof with the well nown triangel marker. This version also had a wind-up mechanism but now with a Martin or Flersheim key.
It was sold in multiple colors.

I have come across this Flersheim version with the coach, so far, in the following colors
Lower part of the sides – Upper part of the sides – the top of the roof.
-Brown – brown – brown.
-Blue – black – black.
-Green – green – green.
-Blue – blue – black.

What is also striking in this version and recognizable as Flersheim is that with all Flersheim models I have seen, the fixing tabs for fixing the back, are facing backwards.
With the Martin version, these tabs are always facing inwards.

Yet another deviation is that for the toys of which the carriage is completely colored, (the green and light brown version) the colors appear to be “sprayed”, but that they were only sprayed after the carriage was already partially assembled.
If you look closely at the carriage, you will find color residues on the drive section, the rods to the horse, but only on the inside at the location of the wind-up mechanism, the key and also on the inside of the rear lower protruding ornament parts.

The same horse was used many years by Martin, Flersheim and Victor Bonnet for divers toys: from 1890 the Don Quichotte, the horse with a cover
number 110 Le Cab version with fly wheel made by Fernand Martin in 1889
number 122 Le Courrier Parisien made by Fernand Martin in 1892
number 192 Le Cab version with a wind-up mechanism made by Fernand Martin in 1903
number 192 Le Cab version with a wind-up mechanism made by George Flersheim in 1912
number 194 de La Voiture A Bitume made by Fernand Martin in 1906
number 203 de Le Laboureur made by Fernand Martin in 1906
number 255 La Charrette Paysanne made by Victor Bonnet in 1927

In the Martin books known to us, a few figures are included with, as it turns out, the wrong number.
Here are the adjustments, after these adjustments, there are still a few toys without a number.

This blog is made with help of Bruno Cirla and Christophe Feraud from Massilia Toys in Marseille, my big thanks for this

ADJUSTMENTS:

Number 174 and 176
The numbers 174 and 176 have probably been swapped because evidence has been found that the Le Balayeur has number 174:
174 old number Le Vaillant Boer must be new Le Balayeur
176 old number Le Balayeur must be new Le Vailant Boer

In the Martin literature and books number 180 is given to The Policemen but it turns out number 180 is for the toy: “Present arms” God save the king.

number 180 “Present arms”, God save the King is an sentinel (probably only for the English market including the, in that time, colony of Canada, on the catalog picture there is extra text that has a link to Londen, see below on the picture the text: C&E LONDON

We see that number 180 was been given to The Policemen, (Bobby) made for the Englisch market, but The Policemen must have number 181.

But in the Martin literature and the books number 181 has been given to the Garçon de cafè, what number the Garçon de cafè should now have is not yet clear.

In the Martin books number 182 is given to the postman: Le télégraphiste but it turns out that number 182 is for The Sentinel, what number the postman will get is not yet known.

number 182 The Sentinel (probably only for the English market including the, in that time, colony of Canada) see the picture of the figure with the bear hat below.

number 183 La Sentinelle (a series of presumably 3 soldier figures: French – Russian – and Italian) These 3 Sentinelles are mentioned in Martin’s gift to the Musée des arts et métiers Paris in 1908.

OVERVIEUW NEW NUMBERS

Changes in the book: FERNAND MARTIN toymaker in Paris 1878-1912

174 Le Balayeur.
176 Le Vaillant Boer.
180 “Present arms” God save the king.
181 The Policemen (Englisch market)
The waiter: Le Garçon de cafe NO NUMBER UNTIL NOW.
182 The Sentinel (Englisch market)
The Postman: Le télégraphiste NO NUMBER UNTIL NOW.
183 La Sentinelle 3 soldiers French- Russian and Italian

My question to the readers:

Now I am looking for other missing numbers
If there is someone who can give me one or more of these missing or the correct numbers, I would be very happy, and if you can help me, mail me: cor@vanschaijk.com .
It’s about:
The right number for the Soldat French – English – Belgian – Russian – Portuguese, These numbers are available: 235-236-239-242-243-244-245

The postman: Le télégraphiste, WHAT IS HIS NUMBER??

The waiter, Le Garçon de cafè, WHAT IS HIS NUMBER??

A few weeks ago I was able to add another rare Martin to my collection.
It is a Martin from the first period and is from the year 1889
Martin started in 1878 so this is a fairly early copy
He later released this model again in 1903 in a modified version and later after 1912 Flersheim also put this model on the market again.
This first 1889 version is the Le Cap with product number 110

So far I know the existence of 5 of these rare versions from 1889

In the book Fernand Martin Toymakers in Paris 1878-1912 by Lourens Bas he is depicted on pages 52 and 53 with the number 25 assigned by the authors, later research shows that the correct number must be 110.
Martin started with product number 100 see my blog : https://fernandmartintoys.nl/the-numbering-of-the-fernand-martin-first-period-who-can-help-me/
The aforementioned book contains two photographs from the collection of the Parisian museum: Musée des arts et Métiers.
One of these photos is an exploded version of the second version from 1903 and the photo on page 53 is the old version from 1889.

Soon I will publish an extensive blog about the various Le Cap versions with all their differences.

Don’t miss the November 2022 issue of the Antique Toy World Magazine

An overview of the contents of the new Antique Toy World Magazine November 2022 :

Antique Toy World is the leading publication for toy collectors worldwide.

Published since 1970.
Antique Toy World is a monthly magazine published in the USA by Dale Kelley, the magazine’s founder, editor and publisher.

To subscribe go to https://antiquetoyworld.com/about-atw/
Email: ads@antiquetoyworld.com

I also published this article in the: Antique Toy World issue September 2022

As a successor of Fernand Martin and George Flersheim, Victor Bonnet Factory started the production in 1919 in the old Fernand Martin factory, in 1933 they stopped the production and moved to another building in Paris.

In these 14 years Victor Bonnet has made a series of 5 beautiful trucks and tractors.  

246 Le Déverseur
248 Tracteur + 250 Le Remorque (sold together)
249 Camion : Le Roulant
254 Le Train Tortillard
261 Camion : Gros Camionnage

He named this family of vehicles: Les-Auto-Transports

At Victor Bonnet someone came up with a family of products with standard building blocks that could be reused within the “Les Auto-Transports” family, which can already be clearly seen on the fronts of the five various trucks and tractors.

All models had a plaque on the hood with the name: Les auto-transports
This plaque has undergone some changes over the years as can be seen in the collage.

These models are somewhat undervalued, they are all vehicles with a genius mechanism and these mechanisms are all basically the same. 

At the front of all five models is a handle with which you can drive the car in a straight line or in circles.

The first of the model Le Déverseur with number 246 produced from 1919 had the most extensive mechanism with lot of functions: start-stop, drive, standstill and a side-tilt function. The models after this one were a bit simpler.  

^{246 Le Déverseur}

Victor Bonnet was the first successor to Fernand Martin who started producing cars
He released a series of trucks and started with number 246
It was a “tip up truck”, the truck has an automatic tipping and driving mechanism.

This model was released in various colors, I have seen models in Yellow, green, gray, black and brown
The length is about 20 cm (7.9 Inches)

These models have a very advanced and ingenious engine, the start-stop part sits like a handle next to the driver’s steering wheel.
After winding, you can put the car on the ground and push the handle back a bit, then it will drive, after a short time, the car will stop and the bucket will slowly move to the side to drop its load, then the bucket will go back to the old position and the car starts moving again and everything repeats itself.

In the production years, the box has been changed a few times.
The first boxes only contain the production number No 246
Boxes are known to have a sticker added with the text Déverseur No 246
Later the label came with the text Déverseur No 246 printed as fixed on the label
And I found boxes with the text Le Déverseur No 246

The next two boxes has the same picture of the catalog site on the front, these catalog pictures usually had less information than the original box labels, are they original??
I’ve come across some of those boxes before.

On the inside on the bottom of the box an extra text sheet could have been applied to indicate the operation, this is found in two languages; in French and in English.
The text on the outside of the box is only found in French, also on the boxes with an English text sheet inside.

There are boxes contained with no text sheet inside but a separate manual with the (freely translated) text:
AUTO-LE DÉVERSEUR
OPERATION :
Reassembly… Put the Engine to Stop and turn; with the key to the right, making it make 10 half-turns.
Starting… Push forward the Crank which is to the left of the driver.
Stop… Bring the Crank to the rear which is to the left of the driver.
Direction … Bring, by pressure from top to bottom, the Joystick located at the front of the Hood, in one of the 3 notches. The walk in a circle is obtained by using the 2 notches on the left.

There are models without a text, models with a text on the side or back and models with a text in the inside of the loadig area, and when they have a text it was in French or in English
The various texts I found till now are:

The body has also been available in two variants, with an angular body and with a rounder body, the truck with the rounder body (I found them in de colors gray, black/gray and yellow), and has no texts on the body, only the brass plate on the bonnet.

From this version with the rounder body, I found another one with a different nose/bonnet in the color: red body with a bleu loading area. That one has the nose/bonnet from trucks from the production after 1933 and on top of this nose/bonnet there is no longer the well-known brass nameplate.

So you can see that over the years this truck has had many different varieties.
Many Fernand Martin, George Flersheim and Victor Bonnet toys have sometimes been produced for many many years and have received many small adjustments or other colors over the years.

248 Tracteur and 250 Le Remorque

These two Victor Bonnet creations of a tractor and a trailer, were sold together in one box, I have not found any proof anywhere that they were sold separately.

I have come across the tractor/truck in two colors so far, in green and in red, (green and red in various color gradations from dark to light, but presumably the influence of sunlight has also had an influence on the color), and there are two different rear wheel placement options, one in a short base and one in a long base.

What has been noticed is that there are two versions of the tractor, with and without a roof.
Presumably it was marketed in two versions with and without a roof, which is apparent from the fact that the tractor can be found with and without mounting holes for the roof, (see the photos).

Look at the two different trailers, sometimes the trailer has a bronze plate on the back with the text: Charge maximum 5000Kos and the back and front of the trailer has different plating, version with a 6 and with a 4 rectangular layout

249 Le Roulant

This model is very very rare.
I’ve only come across a few of them.

The colors I have found so far are green, orange/brown, yellow all with red wheels and a dark blue one with bleu wheels, the length is about 25 cm (10 Inches)

It is listed in the Victor Bonnet catalog with the name Camion 249 but in the truck you can see that the name is : Le Roulant

The characteristic of this model is that there is a print on the bottom of the cargo area with the name and product number.

A similar model was later released with number 261 with the same name Camion to, but on that truck you can see the name Gros Camionnage written on the fabric tarpaulin.
This Camion is an adapted form of the here presented “Le Roulant” number 249, the later model number 261 has a fabric tarpaulin, no longer had a print on the bottom of the transport section and no text plate on the back of the cabin.
This model 261 will be found even more.

The model 261 Gros Camionnage without the fabric tarpaulin is sometimes be sold as a: Le Roulant, but can therefore be easily recognized by a print on the bottom of the cargo area and on the back of the cabin a brass text plate with the text: Charge maximum load 5000 Kos of the original Le Roulant, so pay attention.

254 Le Train Tortillard