L’Édifice - Maison Méricant

oktober 1, 1917 februari 14, 2026

edge

A beatifull detailed building construction set, manufactured and sold in France by Maison Méricant from 1921~1953.

The system consists of a wooden carrying system, both in horizontal & vertical direction. On top of the vertical trusses, floor panels could be placed. In between the vertical pillars, colorful cardboards could be placed, making these buildings really beautiful. On top of the building, roofs could be added.

L'Edifice boxes & spare parts were sold over a long period, including many changes. This page will be a summery of the L'Edifice developments over time. This page could also be used as quick reference page, looking up which panel series belongs to which period.

See 3D building examples on SketchFab.

Quick reference guide

Assumed L'Edifice developments, between 1921-1933:

L'ÉDIFICE References - Sets & Parts - 1921..1933 (v0.9).PDF Downloaden

1917 Oct. - Issued the first patent

vintagetoys_ledifice_FR505084A_Original_document_20220916205407

First patent issued in France (FR505084A) October 1917 and granted April 1924. It's also patented in Swiss (CH93315A) and Great Britain (GB149726A).

With the first patent, but also with the wooden prototype, L'Edifice was still using 'strips' (Fig.8, part no. 5), for connecting the pillars & columns together. This method is also used with most other wooden pillar systems.

1919 May - Registered design: L'Edifice

In May 1919, Méricant submitted a registered design with spare parts.

These wooden parts seems to be difficult to be cutted, which will change quickly when the first boxes are sold.

1920: New developments & starting sales

1920 was a busy year:

June: New patent: truss elements (A-parts) and ridge tiles (J-parts).
July: Updated registered design.
Aug/Oct.: Showing a wooden prototype during Concours Lépine.
1st of Dec.: The announcement that L'Edifice is for sale!
Panels for walls & gables are now stamped out of printed cardboard.

The patent included new truss & ridge tiles elements. It's clearly shown in these patents:
German (DE352706C), France (FR23109E), Great Britain (GB193457A) and Swiss (CH100217A).

This will also be used in the production series.

vintagetoys_ledifice_DE352706C_Original_document_20220916210055

Prototype series of L'Edifice. It did win a price on the Lépine contest Oct/Aug. 1920. The complete setup is made out of (painted) wood.

Image courtesy: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliotheque nationale de France.

On the very left side of the photograph, the new production variant is shown: cardboard panels, instead of wooden panels.
This is most likely the building on the sales advertisement.

1921: L'Édifice - Les Jouets de la paix

Like the sales advertisment shows, three boxes are sold:

Box 1 & 2: Houses, like the sales advertisement.
Box 3: Unknown, most likely plans for the bigger buildings.

1922: Special box: The Fort

Although we don't know the exact content of boxes produced, around 1922 the boxes were defined like:

Box 1: Houses
Box 2: Churches
Box 3: Potential the bigger buildings, like No. 57 Hotel de Ville?
Special box 5: 'The Fort'.

Many different models exist already, as refered to on the photo copyrights of 1922 in many manuals.

Box cover, panels & buildings

1921/1922 Box cover
Image: Google Arts & Culture

1923: L'Édifice - Flamboyant castles

Around 1923 the content of boxes was re-shuffled, so it became possible to create different building styles.
An other major update: front & backside of the panels getting more different styles.

New box cover: Picture of flamboyant castle near a river.
Content sets: re-sorted & introduction of new panels & styles:
- Box 0 & 1: Buildings styles: Louis XIII and Normandic chalets.
- Box 2 & 3: Gothic churches, flamboyant gothic palaces of Louis XVI and 'Modern buildings'.
- Box 4: Maybe: bigger buildings, like No. 57 Hotel de Ville?
- Special box 5: 'The Fort'.

As shown on the instructions below, many many buildings were already existing during these years! The building game seems almost fully developed.

Box cover, panels & buildings

Set 1: Box cover, content & manual (~1923)

Available sets & wall panels:

Box 0 & 1: Base set: Buildings Louis VIII / Normandic houses.
Box 2 & 3: Base set: Gothic churches / flamboyant palaces of Louis XVI / 'Modern buildings'.
Box 4: Potential bigger buildings: maybe No. 57 Hotel de Ville and No. 71 Casterl Sur L'Eau?
Special box 5: 'The Fort'.

Price list of boxes & known buildings up to now:

1924: New translucant panels

Changes & updates:

New gable series is splitted between houses & churches/palaces:
- Boxes 0 & 1: new F1b, G1a.
- Boxes 2 - 4: new F1a, F2a, G1a
- Boxes 1bis & 5: new F2b.
Box 5 became the first special box: 'The Fort'.
A new beautifull special set of transparant set of panels: D6a-g.
- These panels will be re-named in 1925.
- Most likely the early panels having a translucent foil behind the windows and the later versions having a transparant colored sheets.

As shown in the instruction manual of 1924, the identification between different gables "F #b" & "F #a" is not yet documented, as refered by this comment: "The references of certain Spare Parts having been modified, please refer to the 1925 Price List."

1925: All panels updated

During 1925 all panels changed, including some new series and new special boxes.

Box cover: Number most likely blue sticker and no golden border.
Panels:
- All printed panels are updated.
- A new gable (D8a-bis, from 1927 onwards)
- New panel series: Morisch wall panels and bridges.
Box 5: bigger version of box 4, including bridges.
New special boxes:
- Garage No. 1
- Garage No. 2
- The Factory
- The Cathedral

Box cover, panels & buildings

Available wall panels:

Box 0 & 1: Base set: Buildings Louis VIII / Normandic houses.
Box 2 & 3: Base set: Gothic churches / flamboyant palaces of Louis XVI / 'Modern buildings'.
Box 4: Additional panels.
Box 5: Additional panels, including bridges & different gables.
New spare parts: Morisch wall panels & bridges.
New special boxes.

New special boxes:

We are still looking for photo's/scans of: box covers, panels & manuals. Please help.

1929: New set: box 6

Around 1929 a new very big box 6 is introduced. All these panels exist already from 1925 as 'spare parts'.

Content box 6:

All panels from boxes 1 & 5,
Half wall panels,
Double wall panels,
Quadruple wall panels,
Double & tripple half bridges,
Morisch wall panels.

1930/1931: New panels

Important period, L'Edifice parts & models starting to be better organised.

Finally a 'bill of materials' (BOM) for all boxes:
- Complete Boxes: 0 to 6.
- Complements: 0-bis to 5-bis.
Also the models are renumbered, including release of some new albums, see below: LeoCAD models.
Box cover: new front picture (at least from 1931)
Panels:
- Updated church panels (D3b-e): multi colored versions.
- All panels having their numbers printed.
Somewhere during these years, the horizontal trusses changed shape.

Content of boxes & complements

Box cover, panels & buildings

Sets & wall panels from this period:

Box 0 & 1: Base set: Buildings Louis VIII / Normandic houses.
Box 2 & 3: Base set: Gothic churches / flamboyant palaces of Louis XVI / 'Modern buildings'.
Box 4: box 3 + additional panels.
Box 5: box 1 + box 4 + additional panels.
Box 6: box 5 + additional panels, incl. Morisch wall panels, small/big wall panels & bridges.

1931: Special expansions set: Monuments Historiques a Tours Rondes

These 'spare tower parts' could already be bought in 1927. Finally in 1931, these special expansions sets could be bought, containing 1 or 2 complete towers.
With these sets even more beatifull models could be build:

Definitely one of my favorite L'Edifice accessoires. I would love to have some...

1931: Appartements & Meubles, Accessoires and Characters

Around 1931 L'Edifice was also expanding with self-cut figuriens and decoration. Most likely trying to reach a bigger audience.
Around 1934 also flowers and gardening was added.

If you have any colored scans of these characters / accessoires , please let us know.

1934-1938: L'Edifice Moderna

During 1934, the building game got a mayor update:

The amount of different parts are reduced.
Wooden parts are now replaced by yellow painted parts.
New roof system & gable design.
Stair cases are simplified.
Some new elements are added: small roofs.

Box cover, panels & buildings

~1950-1951: New box cover

New release and again a spimplification of the game. Wooden parts & panels are white colored.

If you own a box like this (incl. additional information), please let us know.

~1952-1954: New box cover

Around the 50's L'Edifice was renewed:

The amount of parts are reduced.
Now the horizontal white trusses are made of plastic.
Roof tops are simplified wooden pieces.

~1982 Reissued

An other attement to bring L'Edifice back to the market.

Same concept
Now sold in a plastic blister.
All construction parts are wood again.

Example of re-issued L'Edifice box #2.

Parts & numbering

The system is very well developed, including a sophisticated numbering system:

Some system characteristics

Here a short list of some system characteristics and how it’s retrofitted into the virtual LeoCAD library:

Part types:	Original:	Virtual:
Horizontal trusses	beech Height: 20 [mm] Thickness: 4 [mm]	Single color pieces
Pillars	beech 13x13	Single color pieces
Columns	beech 20x20	Single color pieces
Floor panels	Cardboard ~3.3 [mm] thickness	Single color pieces
Wall panel elements	Cardboard 50x80 [mm] Thickness varies from: 1, 1.5 to 2.25 [mm]	Textured pieces Still not complete, please help!
Bay size	~59.5 [mm]	60 [mm]

Library information

Construction parts:

Here an impression about most construction parts in the library:

This library is still work in progess and will remain in testing phase.

Help request:

Still missing some 'standard' construction parts. If you know which parts these are, please let us know.

I7-bis + N1-bis: Most likely a medium long roof, with span of 2. Anyone seen them?
A21, I11, I16: ?

Many textured wall panels are known already. It's still interesting to know:

Are there any uncolored Morisch walls (D3i-D3l)?
When did the transparant Morisch walls (2x(?)) appear?

Building with LeoCAD

During the many years of developments, also the model names change over time.

All building models, from 1921 to 1933, are found back in these 5 manuals:

1930 Album A - Models for sets: 0 to 3
1930 Album B - Models for sets: 0 to 6
1933 Album C - Special edition models (Modèles Hors Séries)
1931 Album D - Furnished apartments
1932 Album E - Historic monuments (Modèles Tour Rondes)
(1934 Album No. 1 - L'Edifcie Moderna: sets 0 to 3)

With the current library, models from albums A, B, C & E could be build.
Below an impression of building sizes and box content.
Due to the condition of different scanned parts, colors are not always the same.