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.