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Already six years ago now, in
April, 2002, Poupendol published this study of the Fernand Martin's
famous toy " Bécassine Casseuse d'assiettes ". Having been
asked for more us by Internet users who remember it but had not
registered it, by others who heard it speaking but had no
internet, this inexhaustible and charming subject finds today its place
here for the happiness of all the collectors of this small hero more
than centenarian,rooted well now in the French patrimony. Good reading,
second reading or discovered.
Poupendol
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Inexhaustible subject of
fascinating searches, Becassine will celebrate her centenary in 2005.
Perennially fashionable classic and indestructible among our heroes of
comic strip, she carries us along numerous discoveries in unexpected
encounters in nearby domains not only of the Doll with Bleuette but
even the automaton!
Much more than a simple silhouette, it is the delicious small full person of an hilarious assurance which challenges time. She gave place to very numerous realizations and interpretations of which the most famous is, naturally , the doll realized by Reine DEGRAIS (1), from 1949 - doll in jersey, faggot of kapok and dressed in the famous suit. However, been born in 1905 of Joseph Porphyre Pinchon's imagination, she inspired very fast and very variously numerous manufacturers of toys. |
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And so in the " Semaine de
Suzette " appeared notably advertisements for one "
Bécassine Casseuse d'assiettes " ( p. 143 ,
n° 9 of April 2, 1914, and p. 159 , n°10 of April 9,
1914, with details given p. 175 , n°11 of April 16, 1914. As
regards of an ingenious small mechanical automaton from the beginning
of century, it was necessary to look! Nevertheless,
Frédéric Marchand's remarkable work " The
Historic of Toys Martin " (Publishing " the Motorist " 1987-) and the
National Institute of the Industrial Protection helped us there beyond
our expectations.
And we discovered Seraphin Fernand Martin, brilliant self-taught, inventor of the first-rate toys of sheet steel, from the end of past century (2). It is indeed he who created in 1912 this new toy the " Casseuse d'assiettes ". Giving up his affair to Georges FLERSHEIM (3), this last one deposited in 1913 the relative patent, under the number 458.560, (asked on May 29, 1913 and issued on August 9). This toy will obtain the Big Price for the Competition LEPINE, which it had not been possible to award in F. MARTIN. This last, big friend of the famous Prefect, was at the origin of the first-rate Competition and member of the jury of the section "Toys"! |
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Then
the Great War arrived. It seems that the " Semaine de Suzette
" stopped the broadcastingof the " Casseuse d'assiettes ".
Any more no advertisement appears. In 1915, Georges FLERSHEIM is killed
during the attempt of a cannon of his conception. In 1919, the factory
of toys MARTIN-FLERSHEIM is resold in the family BONNET. Registration
in the Commercial register of the Seine is taken under the naming "
Victor Bonnet and Cie, successor of the house Fernand Martin ".
Effectively manufacture is boosted, either with new models, or with the
former models MARTIN, mechanisms and aesthetics being improved. So our
toy is reborn renamed " Madelon, Casseuse d(assiettes ",
Bécassine's name having been, meanwhile, deposited and its
use subjected to precise financial conditions. The production of the
new buyer is henceforth identified with initials " V.B ". (And later "
VEBE ").
The patent of this toy describes the awkward person as a " small maid ". It is not at all " Breton's " question, and even less " Bécassine ". But it seems to think that Henri Gautier, director of the " Semaine de Suzette " in informed businessman, perceived advantages to be fired of the association of this successful toy with the heroine of his newspaper. An agreement had been probably concluded with the manufacturer to diffuse the " Casseuse d'assiettes ", under the name of " Bécassine ". This Bécassine's name was deposited in 1910. But the toy so put up for sale by Publishing GAUTIER, had exactly no " look " of our heroine. The dress was blue or red, and not green - pea. The hypothesis of a series with dress painted in green, red camisole and black rubbans was attractive. Frédéric MARCHAND, specialist of toys MARTIN, is formal : no special series ever seems to have existed. |
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THE TOY IN DETAIL So
let us have we two very similar toys. Let us examine them and see their
resemblances and their peculiarities. Both are naturally of size,
principle and conception absolutely identical.
To the left, still holding the plates Bécassine of 1914. To the right, V.B's Madelon. "Fernand Martin" (" F.M. ") is so in sheet steel. In black corselet, in red long skirt or blue - flag with white apron, the quite painted in the hand. She wears on the front a necklace with the catholic cross, these molded and painted in gilt. She has hoofs. Stamped " F.M. " in the back of the headgear, she measures about 17 cms. The key of animation is fixe (4 ) |
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"Victor
BONNET" (" V.B ") is slightly different in the presentation: Always in
sheet steel, dress with lithographed long skirt blue - sky with white
peas. By top, a small dickey with sleeve in tissue of white cotton
squared with fine red scores, with collar of white cotton. And a cotton
white apron. The chain and the cross disappeared. She wears also
lithographed hoofs and measure also 17 cms in height. The key is always
fixed permanently.
They are so very close, not to say similar, in some vestimentary details near. Of any manners, it is about the exploitation of the same patent. Only presentation changes, little but enough so that one can easily distinguish them. |
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Let
us go raise her: The mechanism is the same. Becassine (or Madelon)
transports with dignity plates which abruptly jump and fall again, in
the big dismay of our hero, whose sour glance upward, takes the sky to
witness. The dozen plates (metal fortunately) was always colored shell
of egg at Fernand Martin. It seems that Victor BONNET took out them in
the same tint, but sometimes dotted with gilded stars (Cf.
Frédéric MARCHAND's book). ( 5).
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The
Patent,
conceived by Fernand Martin but deposited by FLERSHEIM is so very
interesting. Admire it sharpness and precision. Unexpected document,
isn't it?
Hélène
BUGAT-PUJOL
2002/Abril-May 2008 |
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Note 1
Note 2
Note 3
Note 4
Note 5
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