Fernand Martin – Toymaker in Paris

Local Color in Every Martin Toy
Fernand Martin is the famous inventor of “Bonshommes Martin”. He is the most ingenious man known, an uncommonly shrewd observer and distinguished psychologist. He is the historian of this century in tin plate. Beyond all doubt, future historians will refer for their data on these true representatives of the stir and bustle of Paris life to the typical designs in the collection of amateurs or those in the show cases of technological and industrial museums, which are now laid out for sale on the counters of shopkeepers. Monsieur Martin is a philosopher: he drifts through the streets, his kodak tucked under his arm …’
‘He makes a trip to London and copies the little red-bloused bootblack. From Brussels he brings home the dogcart of the female milk peddler, with the typical copper milk cans. In Paris, however, he is in his proper sphere, and Paris is his most fertile territory.’

(‘Playthings Toy Trade magazine June 1909 ‘A pioneer Manufacturer of mechanical toys Monsieur Fernand Martin’, editorial article, The Strong Archive USA.)