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Fernand Martin in Klein Paris After our recent visit to 'Klein Paris' in the special and unique Spielmuseum Soltau (www.spielmuseum-soltau.de), we would like to share our enthusiasm about the collection with you. On the other side of the main location of the museum, a...

On 14 October 2018, the Louis-Roland Neil collection was auctioned at the French auction house Osenat Fontainebleau. Thanks to a tip from an attentive collector, I studied the catalog more closely. And indeed it was offered under lot 377: '' Fernand MARTIN "La...

A week ago, an American collector from Martin Toys sent me a picture of a toy. It is a figure of a man with a metal ball in both hands. His looks show the pointed nose and the luxuriant head of hair! The waistcoat and tie are similar to the barber made by Fernand...

After Victor Bonnet took over the toy business from Flersheim in 1919 he makes, among other things, 'Camion' (no. 249). This is an open truck from the 'Les Auto-Transports' series. A fellow collector drew my attention to a different 'camion' on Ebay and at the moment...

Osenat Fontainebleau (Paris, France) In November 2017 a toy auction was held in France at auction house Osenat Fontainebleau. With seven lots of toys made by Fernand Martin, including a rare game that is known in our book without a photo: number 206 'Jeu de Pêche a la...

This spring there is plenty to do for Fernand Martin enthusiasts! Several international auction houses are having toys made by him in their catalogs. Some prices are very reasonable, and other prices were very high! Fernand Martin still lives among collectors as we...

On January 10, 2017 on Ebay USA an unusual lot was sold. It was a toy of Fernand Martin, named ‘L’ Eminent Avocat’. In our book "Fernand Martin Toymaker in Paris' is it, with several variations, shown on p. 146-147. The description of the seller was: “Fernand Martin,...

Two years after our publication of 'Fernand Martin, toymaker in Paris' we, Arthur Verdoorn and Lourens Bas,  were very happy and surprised to read an article in The Antique Toy World of December 2016. Renaud Fournier described the discovering of 'Le Jeu de Massacre'....

Recently I saw on Ebay a perfect L'Autopatte for sale. This one was not made by Fernand Martin but by Georges Flersheim, one of his successors after 1912. The box is exactly the same as the box Martin made and even has the 'FM'-mark on it but the toy for sure is made...

This picture shows 'La vendeuse de jouet' a French lady selling toys of Martin in the open air, around 1900. From left to right you see: Le Pochard, Le Chinois, La Blanchisseuse, Le Faucheur, Ma Portiere, Le Gai Violoniste, L'Homme de Corvée, Le Balayeur and L'Oie....

Monsieur François Mesqui (France) shared with us this nice early drawings from "La Course de Taureau' (1894) and 'Ma Portìere' (rubber band version, 1895). They were original depicted in the French magazine 'La Nature', a scientific magazine.    

This picture was sent to us by a collector. He asked for more information. This toy will be in the book at page 229 in the chapter about ‘Imitators”. It is called “Le Livreur Rapide” and made by S.I.J.I.M (no. 36). For sure it is not a Martin-toy!! But this toy is...