A very early Martin with the name: Le Livreur (the delivery guy)
Made from 1888 with number 22.
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 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
William Hamilton Hall then also produced and sold this toy with the name : automatic postman.
I have this toy in my collection myself, but until now I did not know who the manufacturer was.
But after help from The British Library Business & IP Center 96 Euston Road London to make the patents available with explanation and images, everything became clearer.
I also 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 right, so my toy appears to be the “automatic postman“ toy of William Hamilton Hall and produced from 1884.
There are several conceivable options for how Fernand Martin learned about this toy.
— Martin saw this toy from Hall during his many travels.
— He received the patent (Martin was subscribed to a special company in Paris who collected clippings worldwide for him about everything related to toys, see my blog of May 21, 2019: Personal Postcard from Fernand Martin)
— He was tipped by his many relationships.
— …… fill in yourself.
But at least he thought this was a wonderful toy and immediately saw the business benefits.
To be able to produce this toy, Martin has bought the rights of use of this patent.
But he was not completely satisfied because he himself has 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 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
The story started in England in 1884 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.
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 1684 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 od whitch imitate the natural movements of walking by the combined action of a motor vehicle having a continuous translation motion and abutting point forces lpacing itself alternately on any suitable surface, in such manner that retaining one leg an instant on the ground and the movement of translation that continues this adjacent point forces the leg into contact with the ground incline itself thus giving a movement similar but in the reverse sense to the second leg 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 : Fernand Martin – 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.
But it goes even further:
Fernand Martin and E.P. Lehmann turned out to be good friends 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.
But more about this in one of the following blogs
With special thanks to:
The British Library. Business & IP Center. 96 Euston Road. London
To make the patents available with explanation and images.