A beatifull detailed building construction set, manufactured and sold in France by Maison Méricant from 1921~1953.
We are still researching and record the origin and development of the L’Edifice building sets. If you have any more information you could provide, please help!
L’Edifice boxes were sold over a long period. This page will be a summery of the assumed L’Edifice developments over time. This could also be used as quick reference page, looking up which panel (series) belongs to which period.
Click here for many more details about L’Édifice.
Quick reference guide
Assumed L’Edifice developments:
1917 Oct. – Issued the first patent
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.
1920: New developments & starting sales
1920 was a busy year:
- June: New patent: truss elements.
- July: Updated registered design.
- Aug/Oct.: Showing a wooden prototype during Concours Lépine.
- 1st of Dec.: The announcement that L’Edifice is for sale!
The patent included new truss elements, which are both used on ground levels and above. 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.
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.
On the left side of the photograph, the new producion 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 parts for bigger buildings, possible: bridges, different panels, tower parts, etc.
1922: Special box: The Fort
Although we don’t know exact content of boxes produced, around 1922 the boxes were defined like:
- Box 1: Houses
- Box 2: Churches & bigger buildings
- Box 3: Unknown: (bigger boxes, like Hotel de Ville)
- 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 (Series C)
Image: Google Arts & Culture
There were 4 boxes sold:
- Box 1: Base set.
- Box 2, 3 & 5: base set + additional panels.
1923: L’Édifice – Flamboyant castles
Around 1923 the content of boxes was re-shuffled, so it became possible to create different building styles.
- New box cover: Picture of flamboyant castle near a river.
- Content boxes: re-sorted & introduction of new panels & styles:
- Box 0 & 1: Buildings: styles: Louis XIII & Normandic chalets,
- Box 2 & 3: Gothic churches, flamboyant gothic palaces of Louis XVI & ‘Modern buildings’.
- Box 4: Unknown (Likely including bridges etc.)
- 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 (Series D)
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: Palaces? (to be further researched).
- Box 5: ‘The Fort’.
1924: New translucant panels
Changes & updates:
- New gable series is splitted between houses & churches:
- Boxes 0 & 1: new F1b, G1a.
- Boxes 2 – 4: new F1a, F2a, G1a
- Boxes 1bis & 5: new F2b.
- Box 5 became: Special box ‘The Fort’.
- A new beautifull special set of transparant set of panels.
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.“
New transparent panels (Series E)
Not sure about exact content of these panels, but at least these are D6a-g.
1925: Again new panels
During 1925 all panels changes, 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 & 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 (Series F)
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.
- Special boxes: ‘The Fort’ etc.
- New spare parts: Morisch wall panels & bridges.
New special boxes:
Still looking for photo’s/scans of: boxes, panels & manuals. Please help.
1929: New set: box 6
Around 1929 a new very big box 6 is introduced. All these panels exist already in 1925:
- Half wall panels,
- Double wall panels,
- Quadruple wall panels,
- Double & tripple half bridges,
- Morisch panels,
- and all other panels from boxes 1 & 5.
1930/1931: New panels
Around this period, again many changes:
- Finally a ‘bill of materials’ (BOM) for all boxes:
- Complete Boxes: 0 to 6.
- Complements: 0-bis to 5-bis.
- Box cover: new front picture (at least from 1931)
- Panels:
- Updated church panels (D3b-e): now colored versions.
- All panels are numbered.
- Somewhere during the next years, the horizontal trusses changed shape.
- New special expansion set: Tower models.
- New accessoires sets: figuriens and decoration.
Content of boxes & complements
Box cover, panels & buildings (Series H)
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: box 2 + additional panels.
- Box 5: box 1 + box 4 + additional panels.
- Box 6: box 5 + additional panels, incl. Morisch wall panels & bridges.
1931: Special expansions set:
Monuments Historiques a Tours Rondes
Next to the special building boxes, also 2 sets of tower boxes were sold. With these sets even more beatifull models could be build:
Definately one of my favorite L’Edifice accessoires.
1931: Appartements & Meubles, Accessoires and Characters
Around 1931 L’Edifice was also expanding with 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 (Series I)
~1950-1951: New box cover
Parts are now 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 again 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, but now sold in a plastic blister. All construction parts are wood again.
Example of re-issued L’Edifice box #2.
Parts & numbering
A very detailed system, which 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.
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 13×13 | Single color pieces |
| Columns | beech 20×20 | Single color pieces |
| Floor panels | Cardboard ~3.3 [mm] thickness | Single color pieces |
| Wall panel elements | Cardboard 50×80 [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 of most construction parts in the library:
Help request:
Still missing some ‘standard’ construction parts. If you know which parts these are, please let us know.
Textured wall panels
Overview of the early parts around 1924:
Still interesting to know:
- Are there any uncolored Morisch walls (D3i-D3l)?
- When did the transparant Morisch walls (2x(?)) appear?
Building with LeoCAD
Testing and playing with the library:
Example buildings boxes 0-2:
Most example buildings from boxes 0, 1 & 2. These houses are very small, compared to the more beatifull buildings.
Like always, you never have enough parts…
Notice also the plain cards at the backside of the houses.
Model Eglise (No. 53)
Here a nice example of the 5 different series, including transparant wall textures. Do you know, which church this could be?
Petit Hotel (No. 55)
An other nice model, which exists already during 1922:
In the early models, the half sized balcony parts were pieces A11/A11bis. Around 1925, these became parts A15/A15bis.
Hotel De Ville Flamand (No. 56)
Here a nice example how the prototype series (from Concours Lépine) transforms into “series 1” pannels. After creating some more wooden parts, it was possible to build this model with “series 4” pannels. (Although that spire is still missing.)
Castel Sur L’Eau (No. 71)
Does someone reconize this building?
La Cahterdrale (No. 64)
There are basically 2 versions of the Cathedral found in the manuals:
Monuments Historiques a Tours Rondes TR-1, 2 & 3:
These round towers are a great addition:
Starting to build some round tower models:
- TR-1: Maison Louis_XVI
- TR-2: Maison D’Ambroise Thomas
- TR-3: Castel Renaissance
I wish those scanned pannels would have a simular tints, which makes it more pleasant to view… Anyone who knows a simple way to update all wall pannels, please let me know!
Monuments Historiques a Tours Rondes TR-23:
Rebuilding the large model on the front cover:
I wish I could build this amazing model!
I’m happy to buy more parts. =)
This page is just a quick reference of this beatifull building game.
Click here for much more details about L’Édifice.
Reproduction: created some missing/broken parts, to be continued…
So if you also missing parts, get in contact.
