At the end of 1800 and early 1900, Fernand Martin was a highly regarded businessman in Paris.
His toy factory flourished and his toys were hugely popular and well-known
This of course also attracted people who wanted to get a piece of his popularity and now I mean it in the good sense of the word.
One of those people was an artist who made bronze sculptures.
At that time, bronze statues were enormously popular and in many living rooms these statues were to be admired.
The name of this artist was Jose (Josep) Cardona Furro, he was born in Barcelona Spain and lived from 1878-1922.
He left for Paris at a young age.
Martin often made his toys about what he saw in daily street life and that was the same thing Jose Cardona did.
His bronze statues were mostly statues of people and often of children he saw busy in the street.
One of his images is of a street vendor with clearly recognizable Fernand Martin’s the Ma Portiere. on his back a sack full of boxes of toys, in his hand he is busy turning up a Ma Portiere and there is also a clearly recognizable Ma Portiere at his feet.
The Ma Portiere was made by Martin from 1895, so this image will also be designed and made by Jose Cardona in 1895 or a little later, so at the age of 17.
The sculpture is very detailed and approximately 36 cm high and weighs more than 5 kg. ( 11 pound )
There are versions known with a marble base and versions without this base.
In one of the following blogs I will cover this “Ma Portiere” extensively,