Clifford Berryman’s cartoon in Washington Post on Nov 16, 1902 depicted an incident, which involved President Theodore Roosevelt, his attendants and a Louisiana Black Bear Cub. It was said that having failed to shoot any bears a bear cub was caught and presented to Roosevelt to shoot. He refused.

This is the accepted story on the birth of Teddy Bears, but at the time a different story emerged.A bear killed one of the hunting dogs and in the process was badly wounded. Roosevelt ordered a mercy killing to end the bear’s misery. We can understand why the first story was so readily accepted.

In 1903 a year after Berryman’s cartoon appeared in the Washington Post, Russian emigres Morris and Rose Michtom of Brooklyn, New York, made a jointed plush version of Berryman’s Bear. Around the same

time German Margaret Steiff a wheelchair bound polio victim took a large order (3,000) jointed Teddy bears for a New York department store. The early Steiff Teddy Bears are very much sought after by Teddy Bear collectors worlwide. The period between 1903 and 1908 became known as the ‘Teddy Bear Years’ and by 1907 Teddy’s Bear boosted by Seymour Eaton’s rhyming Tales ‘Roosevelt bears’ became universally known as the Teddy Bear.

Boosted by increasing demand for these loveable creatures soft toy manufactures sprung up in Europe and the USA. By 1909 the Teddy Bear appeared in a children’s story ‘The Tale of Teddy Bright Eyes’ which fuelled demand in Britain. The Teddy Bear market was dominated by German toy companies until the 1920

Since February 1903 to this date, these soft to touch and easy to love Teddy Bears have become a favorite item for children and adults alike worldwide. Recently there has been a noticable swing toward dressed Teddy Bears.

this is not a new trend Teddy Bears became more 'humanised' in the 1930 when Teddy Bear manufacturers introduced Teddy Bears wearing different clothing and World War 11 saw a proliferation of knitted Teddy Bears. A fine example of a knitted Teddy can be seen below it was knitted by my wife!

In the 1955 the first machine washable Teddy Bear was produced by Playsafe Toys.

For many years now Teddy Bear imagery has dominated the greeting card market and we commisioned a young american artist to produce imagery for our 54 Teddy Bear greeting cards designs. The full range of Teddy Bear Greeting cards can be seen on this site). These Teddy Bear cards were drawn with future personalisation in mind.

A combination of writer AA Milne and illustrator E H Shepard led the the creation of Winnie-the-Pooh. This Teddy Bear became famous from 1926 and Milne's son Christoper Robin featured in many of these Teddy Bear stories, he had a Teddy Bear called Edward and enjoyed playing in Ashdown forest with it. In 1958 we saw the arrival of another famous Teddy Bear 'Paddington Bear' who was met by Mr and Mrs Brown at a railway station. He came from Peru and later stared in an animated TV series. Teddy Bears have featured in English literature most notably in Brideshead revisited where Aloysius stared. Since then we have had Super Ted and Fozzie the Teddy Bear from the Muppets and Pudsy Bear has been the offical symbol for BBC's Children in Need charity appeal.

 

Today Teddy Bears come in all shapes and sizes. The early Steiff Teddy Bears had large rounded ears with hand-embroidered noses and large brown glass appealing eyes.

I'm the proud owner of a number of Teddy Bears that have been made from recycled fashion clothing by the shoe designer Paul Andrews and featured in a style magazine. Bear "Artists" began in the USA in the 1970's and many create beautiful single or limited edition Teddy BearsArctophily the name for the hobby of Teddy Bear collecting come from the Greek words "arctos" which means Bear and "philos" which means love. Paul and Rosemary Volpp have amased an outstanding collection of over 4,000 Teddy Bears that are housed at their home in California. The boom in Teddy Bear collecting in the 1980's saw a dramatic price rise of antique Teddy Bears which in turn let to some of the old Teddy Bear manufactures producing replica versions of their older Teddy Bears. Early Teddy Bears fetch high pices and in 1989 saw a Teddy Bear fetch £55,000 at Sotherby's and that was superceded in December, 1994 Teddy Girl was sold at Christie’s, South Kensington, London to Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, a Japanese business man for £100,000, the highest price ever paid for a Teddy Bear. Artctophia is not restricted to the collecting of stuffed Teddy Bears and bear memorabilia offers collectores a wealth of items from Teddy Bear soaps, to silver Teddy Bear spoons, Teddy Bear postcards and Teddy Bear hatpin holders are much sort after. Teddy Bear imagery has been used in many advertising campaigns,

Rowntree's Chocolates used a lovely cardboard free standing Teddy Bear advert in 1925 and for those who thought corporate Teddy Bears are something new are very much mistaken as "Bear Brand Genuine Swiss Milk" in 1912 produced a Teddy Bear with printing on its back!

It's not always a Picnic!

Our love affair with the Teddy Bear has lasted over a century and shows no signs of waining but not all stories of Teddy Bears are happy adventures. Gaspare Gatti's son Vittorio's good Luck Teddy Bear went down with Gaspare when the Titanic sunk. Gaspare's widow Edith found this little Teddy Bear inside his waterproof tobaco pouch and treasured it. Her home was destroyed in World War 11 but she survived and so did the Teddy Bear. When Edith passed away in 1962 the Teddy Bear was returned to Gatti's son Vittorio and the Teddy Bear was later donated to a museum by Vittorio's widow. 1993 saw the rhode island Teddy Bear invasion when thosands of Teddy Bears were swept of a barge and washed ashore sartling the surfers and delighting residents! More recently "Mabel" a Steiff Teddy bear once owned by Elvis Presley was destroyed by Barney a doberman. This Teddy Bear was worth £40,000 ! Gillian Gibsons a teacher was jailed for naming a Teddy Bear Mohammed and in Russia children aged 8 to 15, now have the chance to be involved in a nationwide movement called "Teddy Bears" ("Mishki")

Teddy Bear lovers will not be suprised that the renowned MIT (Masssachusetts Institute of Technology) have chosen a Teddy Bear to test their super Cilia skin. This robotic Teddy Bear will be programed to interact with it's owner and alert medical staff to changes in sick child's condition.

Paul Lakeman is a Director of PTI Ltd a company formed to provide the very best in Personalised Teddy Bears