No, this beautiful toy is certainly not Fernand Martin, but what is it….
Le Saute Mouton. (The leap frog)
This toy was depicted in a magazine from the department store Choumara Paris in 1912 togehter with other S.I.J.I.M. , Martin and other toys.
This toy has been offered for sale at auction a few times over the past 10 years.
It is then offered as a “suspected” Fernand Martin toy.
I’ve discovered a few things now.
An old predecessor was presented in the magazine: La science moderne, this toy with a flywheel in 1891.
After that, nothing can be found, including the maker’s name.
This toy was redesigned and now with a wind-up mechanism, the “inventor” was Mr. Noguier from Paris.
He offered the rights to these toys for sale to the prevailing major manufacturers at the Concours Lepine in 1909
There was a Mr Max Dieckmann from Paris who bought the rights to this piece.
Mr Max Dieckmann was originally a toy dealer, importer, freight forwarder with a lot of different articles, I have found many advertisements from him, all with the address: 24 Reu de Paradis Paris with articles like: wall games, tennis rackets, attributes for athletic sports, paper bags for kites, paper airplanes, Steiff toys, puzzles and in 1910 he had a stand at the 2nd aviation exhibition in 1910.
French postcard from Max Dieckmann with Steiff toys. date: July 10th, 1909 Text translation: “Fine toys of all kinds, specializing in animals and fabric dolls. Max Dieckmann, 24 Reu de Paradis, Paris.
Courtesy: Rebekah Kaufman, Steiff Historian, Blogger, and Consultant www.mysteifflife.com
Max Dieckmann applied for the patent for this toy in 1910 stating that the original inventor was Mr. Noguier.
I cannot find anywhere whether Mr. Dieckmann himself had the capacity to produce toys, I found a advertising where he askt to request for offers of services from manufacturers of color letterpresses used for the manufacture of puzzles
So I suspect that he outsourced the production of this tin toy to one of the existing manufacturers, who????
Mr Max Dieckmann sold his toy department 24 Reu de Paradis Paris, on September 9, 1913 to Mr Jules Bernat, after which I have been unable to find anything.