Collecting Old Teddy Bears Part II: Bears from Outside the UK by Jill Byron
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Teddy Bears Collecting Old Teddy Bears Part II: Bears from outside the UK by Jill Byron Margarete Steiff started her now famous company, making soft toys in 1880 but the teddy bears would not be a part of it until 1903, when her nephew, Richard, took some soft toys and a large bear to a showroom in New York, to promote Steiff goods. There, an American buyer, Hermann Berg, saw one of the Steiff bears, ‘Bar 55 PB’ and ordered 3,000 of them and the rest, as they say, is history. Steiff’s wonderful old bears are recog- nised as the ‘Rolls-Royces’ of the bear world and as such, are highly sought after by 1940s-50s pink musical Tara 1905 small Ideal bear. (Old collectors, with fabulous sums of money changing hands for several well-known bears Bear Scene) £395. Toys bear. such as ‘Happy’, who was bought for £55,000 by Paul and Rosemary Volpp in 1989 and ‘Teddy Girl’, purchased for £110,000 by Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, President of the Japanese toy company ‘Sun Arrow’ in 1994. In the year 2000, an old black Steiff, made as a mourning bear when the Titanic sank in 1912, was sold for £91,750 and ‘Elliot’ a unique blue Steiff, went to a Canadian buyer for £49,500. Christie’s held the first ever auction of teddy bears in 1993 and were the sellers of Happy, Teddy Girl, Elliot and the black Titanic Steiff but as the years have gone past, even old Steiffs, which would have commanded a high price a few years ago, have dropped in value, so that it is possible to buy some of them now for a very reasonable price. I managed to find a 12 inch, 1912 Steiff in October 2008 for just under £600 and I have a small 1910 white Steiff, for which I paid only £300. Neither of these have a Theo, a large Knickerbocker button in their ears, which is quite a usual occurrence, as mothers would remove the 1906-1908 Aetna bear. (Old bear. £175. button to stop them being swallowed by small children. They were, after all, children’s Bear Scene) £280. toys that were meant to be played with and were not the valuable collectors’ items that they are today. However, Steiff, although by far the name best known to antique dealers and arctophiles (bear collectors) alike, is far from being the only antique bear manufac- turer. Many other firms made soft toys and teddy bears, some of which bore a remarkable resemblance to Steiff in the early days. The German manufacturer, Bing, made some beautiful bears, which are very similar to Steiff in appearance but are actually far rarer, as not nearly as many were made. Bing also made mechanical walking and tumbling bears which are highly collectable. These are still very sought after and used to fetch up to £6,000. Some of these, because of their rarity and desirability, still command good prices today but are not as expensive as they used to be. 1930s Fadap bear. (Old Schuco, another German manufacturer popular with collectors, made some wonderful 1950s Steiff. £135. Time Bears) bears, many of which were novelty items such as bear powder compacts, lipstick holders and perfume bottles, usually made in bright colours. These little bears used to fetch £600 at auction but their value has dropped to half that in the present economic climate. Schuco also made some marvellous mechanical bears. One of their most popular ones is the ‘Tricky’ Yes/No musical bear, whose head turns from side to side and up and down when his tail is twisted. These bears also play a melody and have a wonderful wistful expression. They were extremely expensive at one time but the financial market has hit prices of these too and they can now be bought for £300-£400 when once they might have fetched up to £1,500. Hermann Spielwaren and Hermann Original are two more very popular German companies who are still making bears today. Hermann Spielwaren has a green label and Hermann Original uses a red one but as very few old bears have kept these, identifying them is a matter of practice and 1910-1915 Strunz tumbling research. I have a gorgeous caramel coloured old Hermann that I bought from Vicky Large, very rare, BMC bear. (Bourton Bears) £595. Bears, 1907. (Old Bear Gwilliam of ‘The Teddy Bear Chest’. He had been in a museum and as Vicky knew I Scene) £1,950. Note label on liked the old Hermanns, she let me know when he became available and ‘Caramel’ right foot. joined my hug a few years ago. When I buy from a dealer, I always make sure that they know their bears. As I have been collecting for a long time now, I recognise many makes but I still ask a bear restorer friend of mine to identify any I am not sure about. Other nationalities also made teddies and soft toys. American manufacturers, in particular ‘Ideal,’ ‘BMC’, ‘American Stuffed Toy Company’, ‘Knickerbocker’, ‘Aetna’, the ‘American Doll and Stuffed Toy Company’ and ‘Gund’, are popular with collectors. ‘BMC’, (Bruin Manufacturing Company’), were only in production for one year, so their bears are extremely rare and are usually snapped up as soon as they come onto the market. Hazel Jobson, of ‘Old Bear Scene’, has one of these delightful characters for sale at the time of writing. At one time they would have fetched £3,000-£4,000 but can now be bought for £1,000-£2,000. She also has a gorgeous ‘Aetna’ bear for sale at £280. ‘Knickerbocker’ and ‘Ideal’ are among the most popular of the American manufac- turers. Both made bears with gorgeous faces, and some of the Ideal bears have really sweet wistful expressions. I have a little Ideal bear named ‘Maisie’, who is completely Blue Petz bear. German. Old Australian ‘Joy Toys’ £350. bear. £250. bald but who has the most pugnacious expression imaginable! She is a very early bear ANTIQUES INFO - May/June 09 Teddy Bears whom I bought for £90 a long time ago. I couldn’t resist her face! ‘Theo’ is a very large Knickerbocker bear who I bought from the same dealer. He is cinnamon in colour and in profile, looks just like an old bear from a storybook. He was very reasonable priced at about £175. Knickerbocker teddies from the 1920s have metal noses and a flatter face, whilst some of the later bears from the 1950s were produced with long luxurious mohair. Both may be bought for £100-£200. They are charming bears and are quite unmistakeable in appearance. Ireland’s ‘Erris Toys’ made their early bears at Elly Bay in 1950s-60s rare Hermann with 1947. In 1953 they changed their name to ‘Tara’ and this Yes-No musical Schuco. £300. Tara laughing bear. (Old chain. (All You Can Bear) company became one of the best known of all the Irish Time Bears) manufacturers. Tara made musical teddies in different colours, as well as novelty ‘Feed-me’ bears and pandas, which open their mouths when the tummy is pressed. Both may be bought for £100 or less if you are lucky. Their musical bears were once £300-£400 but have dropped in price to £200-£250, or less if you find a bargain at auction. Tara also made the ‘Laughing Bear’, which opens and closes its mouth when a lever in the back of its head is squeezed. These used to cost £250-£350, but they may be bought at auction for £60-£70. Australia had a number of teddy bear makers from the 1930s to 1960s. Among them were Jakas Soft Toys, Verna Toys, Clemens, German bear. Nestle, 1950s Knickerbocker. £200. 1910 White Steiff. £300. Joy Toys, Berlex and Barton Waugh. The Berlex bears would (Blue Ribbon Bears) £170. have been worth £200, Joy Toys could have cost £300-£400 and Barton Waugh Could have been £300-£400. Like every- thing else, the prices will be lower than this now and ‘Gumdrop Editions’ have a Verna Toys bear in very good condition, priced at only £119, at the time of writing. Sadly, by the 1970s, almost all of the Australian companies had gone out of business, because they could not compete with cheap imports from East Asia. There were several well-known French teddy bear manufac- turers in the early to mid twentieth century. Pintel made mechanical bears in addition to ‘ordinary’ ones and one of their most popular examples of these is their somersaulting Late 40s Diem German bear. bear with a clockwork mechanism, which enables him to Redford, early American bear. 1950s Australian Verna bear. (All You Can Bear) £265. (Gumdrop Editions) £119. turn somersaults when he is wound up. Pintel also made a Photo: Sad Pad Bears. £350. mechanical bear riding a metal tricycle in 1915. This was a great success and was made until 1940. ‘Fadap’ and ‘Les Jouets Enchantes’ were also French manufacturers who made teddy bears. There were several others but French bears can be very hard to identify because many of them were made without any label. A Fadap bear could have been sold for £300-£400 and a Pintel clockwork somersaulting bear might have made £400-£500. Les Jouets Enchantes teddies were less valuable at £100-£200. Poland and Japan also made early bears but American, German, Irish and French bears are probably the ones most sought after and easy to find, as there are so many of them. French bear, probably by 1918-1920 rare white Bing.