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2002 marks the 100th birthday of the teddy bear. To many it
comes as a surprise that this major 20th century icon and childhood classic is
younger than electric light, the telephone and the motor car.
 The
cuddly children’s toy, - quite unlike a real bear- was invented almost
simultaneously in the United States and Germany but the United States
undoubtedly gave it its name. In November 1902 Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, 26th
President of the United States, was hunting in Mississippi. The President
failed to make a kill so his hosts caught and tethered a bear, presenting it to
the President as a sitting target. Naturally the President refused, uttering
the immortal words, ‘Spare the bear! I will not shoot a tethered animal.’
Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon of the scene, which was published in the
Washington Post.
(Left Theodore Rossevelt , and behind - his famous 'Spare The Bear' cartoon
depiction)
That same month Brooklyn shopkeepers Morris and Rose Michtom made a soft bear
toy, which they named ‘Teddy’s Bear’ and displayed in their window with a copy
of the cartoon. America went bear mad almost overnight, the Michtoms went on
to make their fortune with the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company and President
Roosevelt had found a highly effective political mascot.
 On
the other side of the Atlantic Margarete Steiff, a disabled German seamstress
with a soft toy factory in Giengen, had added a soft plush bear to the Steiff
catalogue and sold 3,000 to America in 1903. Between 1903 and the First World
War Steiff sold literally millions of bears, with their trademark button in the
left ear, to the United States, Germany and Britain, as the teddy bear overtook
the diabolo as the latest toy craze.
(Left: Margarete Steiff)
 For
collectors very early Steiff bears, with their hump backs, long snouts, large
tapered feet and elongated arms with curved paws, are the most sought-after.
(Left: Steiff bears from 1903 and 1905)
Early Ideal American bears, with their tubby bodies, triangular faces and
long straight arms and legs fetch very high prices too. America also made some
extraordinary novelty bears during this period. These include the 1907 Laughing
Roosevelt Bear by the Columbia Teddy Bear Company, which opens its mouth to
display large teeth like those of the President, and the 1917 red white and blue
Patriotic Bear with electric light bulb eyes.
 In
the inter-war years many new firms started up. Bing (famous for mechanical
bears), Schuco (which specialised in miniature bears), and Hermann are three of
the most collectable German makes from this period. J.K. Farnell (which made
the original Winnie-the -Pooh bought for Christopher Robin in 1921), Dean’s,
(which began making plush bears in 1915) and Merrythought (established in 1930),
are the best-known British firms.
(Left: A clockwork teddy bear violinist)
Teddy Bear History
Technological and social change after World War II changed the face of the
soft toy industry. Many traditional manufacturers ceased trading in the face of
an influx of cheap, mass-produced soft toys from the Far East. By the end of
the 1960s the traditional teddy bear appeared doomed. Instead it enjoyed an
unexpected renaissance which began in 1969, when ‘arctophile’ (bear collector)
Peter Bull published a book about his hobby. Suddenly old-fashioned teddy bears
were desirable objects again. An adult collectors’ market for old bears and
teddy bear ephemera began to emerge while a new area of collecting was created
by ‘bear artists’ making high quality, hand crafted bears in the traditional
manner. In 1985 Christie’s held the first ever auction devoted to old teddy
bears and the Teddy Bear Artists Guild was founded in the USA. 100 years on,
teddy bears, old and young, find themselves more popular than ever.
The History Of The Teddy Bear
Teddy Bear History Chronology
(from The Little History of the Teddy Bear by Michele Brown)
1834 Robert Southey writes Goldilocks and the Three Bears
1894 German toy company Gebrüder Sussenguth show a stuffed bear toy in their
catalogue.
1897 Bear skittles and ‘roly-poly’ toy bears feature in the Steiff catalogue and
the Steiff company takes its own stand at the Leipzig toy fair.
1899 Margarete Steiff registers patents for 23 of her soft toy designs,
including a dancing bear and a bear handler with a brown bear.
1902 November. Morris Michtom sells the first ‘Teddy’s Bear’ in his Brooklyn
shop.
1903 March. Steiff Company sells 3000 of its 55PB bear to America.
1906 May. First advertisement for plush bear toys, still called Bruins, in the
American toy trade magazine Playthings.
1906 November. First advertisement using the words Teddy Bear, by American
manufacturer E.J. Horsman, in the American toy trade magazine Playthings.
1907 Dean’s Rag Book Company publishes Teddy Bear, by Alice Scott, illustrated
by Sybil Scott Paley.
1907 Seymour Eaton publishes The Roosevelt Bears newspaper strip in book form
(USA)
1907 Music of the famous song, The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, written by American
composer J.K. Bratton. Originally called The Teddy Bear Two Step.
1908 Dean’s Rag Book Company advertises cut out and sew teddy bears in Home Chat
magazine.
1908 Large plush bear, unidentified, appears in a Dean’s advertisement.
1908 J.K. Farnell company makes the first British teddy bears.
1909 First cartoon animated teddy-bear cartoon, Little Johnny and the Teddy
Bears, made in the USA.
1911 The Bruin Boys first appearance in Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia.
1912 Steiff create black teddy bears to give as mourning gifts after the sinking
of the Titanic.
1915 Dean’s advertise plush teddy bears, made in their new workshop, in their
Kuddlemee toys catalogue.
1919 First non-stop Atlantic flight by teddy bears when aviation pioneers Alcock
and Brown take teddy bear mascots with them on record breaking flight.
1919 First British comic-strip teddy bear character, Bobby Bear, published in
the Daily Herald
1920 First Rupert Bear picture story, Little Lost Bear, written and illustrated
by Mary Tourtel, appears in the UK newspaper, The Daily Express.
1921 German company Schuco patent the Yes/No bear
1921 J.K. Farnell set up the Alpha works, making bears designed by Cybil Kent.
1924 First colour animation film with a teddy bear theme when Walt Disney
produces Alice and the Three Bears
1926 First Edition of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, published.
1930 First teddy bears made by UK firm Merrythought with designs by Florence
Atwood
1930 Lyrics of The Teddy Bear’s Picnic written by Jimmy Kennedy and set to the
original music written in 1907.
1938 H.M. Queen Elizabeth (now The Queen Mother) grants a Royal Warrant to
1939 British teddy bear makers Chad Valley.
1944 Smokey Bear adopted as the mascot of the United States Forest Fire
Prevention Campaign.
1948 'Biffo' The Bear appears for the first time in The Beano
1952 First appearance of Sooty, the teddy bear glove puppet and magician, on
British television.
1953 Steiff celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Steiff bears with a new style bear,
‘a comical young bear cub’, called Jackie Baby.
1954 Wendy Boston, Welsh toy maker, produces the first truly washable teddy
bear.
1958 Publication of the first Paddington story, A Bear Called Paddington, by
Michael Bond.
1959 Walt Disney acquire the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh.
1962 Colonel Bob Henderson launches The Teddy Bear Club
1962 Margaret Baker publishes The Shoe Shop Bears
1969 Peter Bull publishes Bear With Me (USA The Teddy Bear Book)
1969 Jim Ownby launches the charity Good Bears of the World.
1975 Walt Disney’s first animated film of Winnie-the-Pooh appears.
1979 Peter Bull designs his traditionally styled Bully Bears for House of Nisbet.
1979 Marquis of Bath organises the Great Teddy Bear Rally at Longleat.
1981 Peter Bull’s 1907 American bear, Delicatessen, stars in the television
adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited.
1985 Christie’s of London hold the first ever teddy bear only auction.
1988 Gyles and Michele Brandreth found The Teddy Bear Museum in William
Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford upon Avon
1989 First British Teddy Bear Festival held in London.
1989 Happy Anniversary, a 1926 tipped mohair Steiff bear, is sold at auction in
London for £55,000 to American Paul Volpp as a 42nd wedding anniversary gift for
his wife, Rosemary.
1990 First Steiff UK Limited Edition.
1990 Hermann Teddy Original 75th Anniversary Limited Edition
1990 Merrythought Diamond Jubilee Limited Edition.
1994 Teddy Girl, a 1904 cinnamon Steiff bear formerly owned by Colonel Bob
Henderson, is sold at auction in London for £110,000 to Yoshihiro Sekiguchi,
founder of the Teddy Bear Museum in Izu, Japan.
1996 Teddy Edward, the world’s most travelled bear, is bought at auction by
Yoshihiro Sekiguchi of the Izu Teddy Bear Museum for £34,500
1998 Guinness (8.5 mm tall), made by Lynn Lumb of Halifax, England, enters The
Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest teddy bear.
The History Of The Teddy Bear
Teddy Bear Books:
Bear With Me by Peter Bull (Hutchinson, 1969); Button in Ear by Jurgen and
Marianne Cieslik (Julich, Germany,1989); Collecting Teddy Bears by Pam Hebbs
(Collins 1988); The Teddy Bear Encyclopedia by Pauline Cockrill (Dorling
Kindersley, 1993); The Teddy Bear Hall of Fame by Michele Brown (Headline 1996);
The Little History of the Teddy Bear by Michele Brown (Sutton, 2001).
Teddy Bears – A Complete Collector’s Guide by Sue Pearson (Miller’s Guides
2001)
Teddy Bear Publications:
Teddy Bear Scene, 01903 244900
Teddy Bear Times, 01403 711511
Teddy Bear
Club International, 01206 505950.
Teddy Bear Museums:
California
Teddy Bear Castle Museum, 431 Broad Street, Nevada City, California 95959
Florida
Teddy Bear Museum of Naples, 2511 Pine Ridge Road, Naples, Florida
Indiana
Children's Museum of Indianapolis, P.O. Box 3000, Indianapolis, Indiana
Michigan
The Carrousel Shop and Museum,505 West Broad Street, Chesaning, Michigan 48616
New York
Aunt Len's Doll and Toy Museum, 6 Hamilton Terrace, New York, New York 10031
Thoedores Roosevelt Birthplace, 28 East 20th Street, New York, New York, 10003
Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, 1 Mathatten Square, Rochester, New York, 14607
Pennsylvania
Merritt's Museum of Childhood, Route 422, Douglassville, Pennsylvania 19518 |
