ShareThisBy HELAINE FENDELMAN and JOE ROSSON
Sunday, November 19, 2006
DEAR HELAINE AND JOE: Enclosed are pictures of an old teddy bear that belonged to my now deceased father. I know it is a rare one and very collectible, but I need to know more. It is about 24 inches tall, has two color glass eyes and is stuffed with excelsior. Thank you. _ N. A. K., Toledo, Ohio
Dear N. A. K.: The intriguing story of the "teddy bear" really starts in two very different places.
One of them is the woods of Mississippi, and the time was November, 1902. Some say that President Theodore _ or Teddy _ Roosevelt was there to help solve a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana and others say that he was there on a four-day hiatus from politics. In either event, his hosts took him on a bear hunt, but he was having absolutely no luck bagging his prey. Reportedly, a guide then tied a bear cub to a tree and invited Roosevelt to shoot. The president declined. In November 1902 a cartoon depicting this scene appeared in The Washington Post. It was entitled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" and it was drawn by Clifford Berryman.
Morris and Rose Michtom of Brooklyn, N. Y. saw Berryman's depiction of the cute baby bear and decided to create a toy bear in honor of Roosevelt's decision not to kill the bear cub. Previous stuffed bears had looked rather ferocious, but this one was cute and cuddly, and when it was placed in the window of the Michtom's candy and stationary store, it caused quite a stir.
The Michtom's "Teddy bear" was so popular that, with the help of Butler Brothers, a firm specializing in wholesaling, they founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company to produce the bears and other toys.
Meanwhile, in Germany, Margarete Steiff (1847 _ 1909), who had contracted polio as a child and was confined to a wheelchair, was making toy stuffed animals.
Her first, which was made around 1880, was a pincushion elephant, but she had since branched out to making other kinds of stuffed animals. In 1902, her nephew, Richard Steiff, who was a former art student, sketched some animals he saw in the Stuttgart Zoo and among them was a bear cub that Margarete turned into the prototype for a stuffed bear. This bear made its debut in March, 1903, at the Leipzig Toy Fair, and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, the Teddy bear belonging to N. A. K. was probably not made during the first years of Teddy bear production in either the United States or Germany. One of the telltale signs that this bear is of World War I vintage or slightly after is the amber and glass eyes that were not widely used until after around 1914.
We asked toy specialist, Rich Bertoia of Bertoia Auctions in Vineland, N. J., for his evaluation, and he was of the opinion that this particular Teddy was American because of its round head, which is very different from the somewhat narrower heads typically found on Steiff teddy bears.
The condition of this bear is really very good, and the large size is in its favor. There is a tear on the foot exposing the excelsior stuffing (made from wood shavings), and the mohair plush looks like it is either dirty or has been exposed to tobacco smoke for decades. With all this taken into consideration, the insurance replacement value for this charming teddy bear is in the $600 to $800 range.
(Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of the "Price It Yourself" (HarperResource, $19.95). Questions can be mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.)
