Ananasfreak

The Teddy Bear is a stuffed toy bear that we think of as a cuddly little security object that our children adore and that some adults still idolize.

Why a stuffed bear? Why not a stuffed dog or a stuffed monkey? Well, I am sure you can find these stuffed items but none have continued with such popularity as the Teddy Bear.

How did this happen? How did we start revering this stuffed bear?

You would have to go back to 1902 when then President Teddy Roosevelt went on a hunting trip with several other hunters and their hounds had treed an American Black Bear.

Most of the other hunters had already shot something but President Roosevelt had not and his hunting friends captured this small bear cub and tied it to a tree and invited the President to finish it off.

The President, a staunch conservationist and avid sports hunter, refused to shoot the cub bear saying it would be unsportsmanlike to do such a thing.

The next day the Washington Post ran a political cartoon depicting the event and Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn storeowner, saw the cartoon and created and displayed a toy stuffed bear in the window of his store. He called it “Teddy’s Bear”. The name stuck and I guess you could say the rest is history.

About this same time in Germany, unaware of Michtom’s actions, Richard Steiff designed and produced a stuffed bear and exhibited it at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March of 1903. He also imported 3000 of the bears to the U.S.

Steiff went on to become the top authority in the teddy bear business. His teddy bears are the most sought after bears on the market and obviously command the highest prices.

By 1906 other manufacturers began producing them and the Teddy Bear craze was on with children and ladies carrying them everywhere. Roosevelt used one as a mascot in his bid for re-election.

Then various kinds of teddy bears began appearing. There were American and European. The American bear was more spindly and thinner than the European bear. There were mass produced “toy Teddy Bears” for children and these bears had to meet a rigid standards of construction to be marketed to children in the U.S. and Europe.

There were also “artist’s bears”, these were not mass produced and not intended for small children. They are individually created and intended for an adult market of avid collectors.

In general, an artist’s bear is a bear created from scratch by just one person. They would first design their own pattern, draw out onto fur, usually mohair, cut out, sew, stuff and assemble the bear themselves. An artist’s bear can take as little time as eight hours or as long as 36-48 hours, depending how intricate it is.

These “artist’s bears” are available through individual artists, specialty shops, the internet and craft shows all over the globe.

For the collector, mohair is still the king, whether the teddy bear was made 100 years ago or today. Both short and curly mohair, from the Angora goat, are preferred to cloth or plush furs, made of synthetic fiber.

As with any item designed or of interest to collectors, condition matters. A moth-eaten bear will definitely depreciate in value but what matters most is how the face of the bear has held up over time. “Any damage to the nose, muzzle or eyes significantly devalues a piece,” explains Tim Luke, Antiques Roadshow appraiser, of Jupiter, Florida.

Wear and tear of an item that was meant to be held and cuddled can be repaired but not carelessly. Missing eyes cannot be replaced with any old shirt button as they are completely different from the boot-button used in yesteryear. Valuable bears can be brought back to health with a visit to the doll hospital or teddy bear restorer, which are often listed in trade or industry magazines.

The most expensive bear ever sold at auction was a Steiff Teddy Girl, a bear that Christie’s auction catalogue was listed at $10,000 to $15,000. Yet it sold for $171,600 at a Christie’s auction a few years ago.

As you can see, collecting and caring for teddy bears could be very profitable. So, you may want to start rummaging around up in the attic to see if there may be an old Teddy Girl up there and if so, just remember where you heard it first.