Teddy Bears Collecting Old Teddy Bears Part I: Old English Bears by Jill Byron There is something very comforting about a teddy bear. They have always been beloved childhood companions and if you are feeling lonely, miserable, or ill, just cuddling a teddy bear can make you feel better. I have certainly found this to be true and two of my own bears, one old and one modern, have helped me through some of the worst times of my life. Chad Valley, William J. Terry, Chiltern, Merrythought, Deans, Invicta, Omega and Farnell, are just a few of the English companies who made teddy bears in the early part of the last century. 1930s pink and blue Chilterns. Pink 1948 Farnell with a wonderful face. Others include Steevans, Ealontoys, Pedigree, Wendy Boston, Plummer bear bought from ‘Old Time Bears’ Bought from a teddy bear shop in in 2005 for £185. Blue bear bought Llangollen, which sadly no longer Wandless and Co. and Pixie Toys. at a bear fair for £140. exists. £250. Chiltern are among the most popular of the English makers. Their teddies usually have a sweet face and as any collector will tell you, this is very important, as the face is always the thing that makes you want to buy the bear. Chiltern ‘Master Teddy’ was the first bear ever made by this company in 1915. He was worth around £1,500-£1,800 a few years ago but although he is a victim of the times, he is very rare and will have held his value better than many. Chiltern Hugmees are great favourites with arctophiles. (bear collectors) I have an enormous 36 inch Hugmee called Archie, (yes, they all have names,) for whom I paid about £400. He had been left out in a garage, poor chap, and was in need of repair but a visit to a restorer friend of mine soon put that right and he now sits in my office watching me as I work. He would have been £700-£800 two years ago. I bought him at a Bear Fair at the Motor Cycle Museum at Birmingham six or seven months ago. This is a Fair well worth attending if you like old bears and dolls. Chiltern also made coloured teddies, pink 1915 Farnell, very Steiff-like but 1950s blue and white standing and blue being the most popular colours, which used to cost up to £800 with shorter arms. Bought from ‘The musical Chiltern with head-turning but even 1930s bears may now be bought for under £200. Some of their Teddy Bear Chest’ in 2007 for £320. mechanism. Bought from ‘TheTeddy most popular bears are musical which can have either a wind-up, or a Bear Chest’ for £300. bellows movement. They also made a standing musical bear in blue and white, pink and white or beige and white, with a head that turns from side to side as the music plays. These used to fetch £300 but one sold at auction a few years ago for only £40! They were still worth about £250 then, so someone had a very good buy. Chiltern ‘Tingaling’ bears, which chime when shaken, are highly sought after and always seem to sell well as long as the asking price is reasonable, usually around £200-£250. Chad Valley is another popular manufacturer with collectors. They made many wonderful characters, some of which are very unusual. One of the specialist dealers in antique bears, Old Bear Scene, has a gorgeous 1938 Chad Valley Coronation Bear for sale at the time of writing. At £895, he is not cheap but he is a very rare red, white and blue Chad in excellent condition, which was made for the coronation either of Edward VIII or King George VI. You may be lucky and find a well-loved Chad Valley Pink and white Farnell. Bought from at auction and buy it for around £70, or less if it is a small bear. I found a very early small Chad with a red foot label at a local auction a few a Bear Fair for £110 in 2000. 1930s Merrythought. Bought at auction in 2004 for £40. Value then years ago, dating it to the early thirties or even late twenties and paid just was £150-£200. £28 for her. She was actually worth about £150-£200 at that time. Later in the thirties, a blue label replaced the red one on the foot and in 1938, Chad Valley obtained the Royal Warrant, which entitled them to put ‘Toymakers to her Majesty the Queen’ on the foot label, until 1953, when it read ‘the Queen Mother’. This dates them quite easily pre or post 1953. Larger Chads in good condition are £200-£300 retail price from an old bear dealer. Terry’s bears are highly sought after by arctophiles but they cannot be identified with any certainty unless they have their original card swing tag and these are very rare indeed. They used to cost between £800 and £2,500 but again, they may be bought for less now, depending on their condition and size. They may easily be confused with Omega bears, which have very similar characteristics, although these sometimes have a dropped down stitch at each end of the nose. They are rare and are delightful characters and I have two in my hug that are believed to have been made by this company. Farnell were the English ‘Rolls-Royce’ manufacturers of teddies and soft 1930s Merrythought clown bear. 1950s large Farnell found sitting in toys. They were beautifully made and are a ‘must’ for every bear Bought from Bourton Bears for a child’s pedal car at Bourton £200 approx. Bears. Bought for £50. collector. They have always been desirable and a large early Farnell ANTIQUES INFO - March/April 09 Teddy Bears would have cost well over £2,000 at one time. They have sweet faces for the most part and this is certainly part of their attraction. My biggest bargain ever was a large white Farnell that I bought at auction for just £20! He had been thrown into a skip and had only one leg attached to him but fortunately, the person who had done this dastardly deed had thrown his other leg in after him, so all that remained to be done was to re-attach his leg and give him a good clean and I had a bear I could never have afforded in the ordinary way. I was offered £500 for him two weeks later but I didn’t want to sell him. I found another huge Farnell sitting in a child’s pedal car, when I visited the 1950s small Farnell. Bought from a well-known ‘Bourton Bears’. I looked at his price tag and couldn’t bear fair for £110 in 2000. believe my eyes when I saw it read only £50. He is a gorgeous bear with a wise and gentle expression and needless to say, at that price, he came home with me! The very large bears are often a lower price than the medium ones because they take up so much room. Smaller Farnells may 1930s-40s large Farnell. Fantastic now be purchased for under £100 and have always been fairly easy to bargain at £20 at auction. Value find. I found a pink and white Farnell ‘Tingaling’ at another Bear Fair a well over £500. few years ago. This one is unusual in that he still has his swing tag round his neck, which identifies him beyond any doubt. He was about £150. Some of the early Farnells are very similar to the early Steiffs. I bought a 1915 Farnell two or three years ago, who looks exactly like a Steiff. She only cost me £320, which was a fantastic buy at the time. Merrythought, the famous English firm which still makes bears and gollies today, opened its soft toy factory at Ironbridge in Shropshire in 1930. Their old bears are very sought after and are fairly easy to find. They can cost from £250-£500, depending on their size, type and rarity. The very early ones have a celluloid button in the right ear. Perhaps 1930s Chad Valley magna. Bought Merrythought’s most popular bear was, and still is, the Cheeky Bear. from bear dealer ‘All You Can Bear’ This cheerful little character was made in many different forms and the in 2007 for £245. original Punkinhead, made as a mascot for Eaton’s department store in Toronto, can cost almost £1,000 in good condition. Other Cheekies 1950s rare blue and white include Mr. and Mrs. Twisty Cheeky, which used to make £500-£700 Merrythought Punkinhead. ‘Old each, Bedtime Bertie, with his little hot water bottle, Print Cheeky and Bear Scene’. £995. many others, some of which are extremely rare. ‘Ealontoys,’was founded by the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst in 1914. The name is an abbreviation of ‘East London Toy Factory Ltd’. This company made musical bears and a hot water bottle bear, in addition to ‘ordinary’ bears. Earlier last year I bought a lovely bear in extremely good condition, with an ‘EALONTOYS’ foot label. He cost me just £30 at auction. In 1998, an Ealontoys bear with a growler sold for £368 at one of the specialist Christies’ sales of teddy bears and mine would probably still make £175-£225 at a toy auction. There were many more English old toy and bear makers, but unfortunately, there is not enough room to mention them here. Collecting bears is a very rewarding hobby and it is becoming less Old, very unusual Merrythought expensive than it was when I first started collecting ten years ago.