Collecting Old Teddy Bears

Teddy Bears
Collecting Old Teddy Bears
Part I: Old English Bears
1930s pink and blue Chilterns. Pink
bear bought from ‘Old Time Bears’
in 2005 for £185. Blue bear bought
at a bear fair for £140.
1948 Farnell with a wonderful face.
Bought from a teddy bear shop in
Llangollen, which sadly no longer
exists. £250.
1915 Farnell, very Steiff-like but
with shorter arms. Bought from ‘The
Teddy Bear Chest’ in 2007 for £320.
1950s blue and white standing
musical Chiltern with head-turning
mechanism. Bought from ‘TheTeddy
Bear Chest’ for £300.
Pink and white Farnell. Bought from
a Bear Fair for £110 in 2000.
1930s Merrythought clown bear.
Bought from Bourton Bears for
£200 approx.
ANTIQUES INFO - March/April 09
1930s Merrythought. Bought at
auction in 2004 for £40. Value then
was £150-£200.
1950s large Farnell found sitting in
a child’s pedal car at Bourton
Bears. Bought for £50.
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.
Others include Steevans, Ealontoys, Pedigree, Wendy Boston, Plummer
Wandless and Co. and Pixie Toys.
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
and blue being the most popular colours, which used to cost up to £800
but even 1930s bears may now be bought for under £200. Some of their
most popular bears are musical which can have either a wind-up, or a
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
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
years ago, dating it to the early thirties or even late twenties and paid just
£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
toys. They were beautifully made and are a ‘must’ for every bear
collector. They have always been desirable and a large early Farnell
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
well-known ‘Bourton Bears’. I looked at his price tag and couldn’t
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
now be purchased for under £100 and have always been fairly easy to
find. I found a pink and white Farnell ‘Tingaling’ at another Bear Fair a
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
Merrythought’s most popular bear was, and still is, the Cheeky Bear.
This cheerful little character was made in many different forms and the
original Punkinhead, made as a mascot for Eaton’s department store in
Toronto, can cost almost £1,000 in good condition. Other Cheekies
include Mr. and Mrs. Twisty Cheeky, which used to make £500-£700
each, Bedtime Bertie, with his little hot water bottle, Print Cheeky and
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
expensive than it was when I first started collecting ten years ago.
However, the pleasure I get from my hug, the correct name for a
collection of bears, is worth every penny and I can’t ask for more.
For websites of many of the dealers in old bears and indeed all other
things ‘beary’, the Huggletts ‘Teddy Bear Guide’ is an invaluable
companion. It may be purchased from: Huggletts, PO. Box 290,
Brighton, England BN2 1DR for £7.50 and includes four free tickets to
the huge bear and doll fair at Kensington, which is held twice yearly in
February and September. Their website is: www.huggletts.co.uk.
1950s small Farnell. Bought from a
bear fair for £110 in 2000.
1930s-40s large Farnell. Fantastic
bargain at £20 at auction. Value
well over £500.
1930s Chad Valley magna. Bought
from bear dealer ‘All You Can Bear’
in 2007 for £245.
1950s rare blue and white
Merrythought Punkinhead. ‘Old
Bear Scene’. £995.
Old, very unusual Merrythought
bear, bought from an antique shop
in Rye for £30.
Very early Terry’s bear. Bought
from ‘The Teddy Bear Chest’ in
2007 for £750.
1950s blue and white musical
Pedigree. Bourton Bears. £165.
Chilty. 1930s Chiltern. My very first
old bear. Bought at auction in 1997
for £170.
ANTIQUES INFO - March/April 09
Teddy Bears
9
14
5
1
1920s pink plush teddy bear,
glass eyes, stitched snout and
pink cream tipped plush body
with squeezebox, attributed to
Chad Valley factory, missing
one ear. Cotswold Auction
Company, Cirencester. Apr
05. HP: £750. ABP: £882.
Early 20thC Farnell golden
mohair plush teddy bear, red
jacket and cap, clear glass
black pupil eyes (repaired),
53cm high. Charterhouse
Auctioneers, Sherborne. Mar
08. HP: £450. ABP: £529.
6
Farnell bear, fully jointed,
hump back, worn blonde plush,
one glass button eye, black
stitched nose & mouth, 44cm.
Gorringes, Lewes. Mar 01.
HP: £340. ABP: £399.
Large English Teddy Bear,
1930s, light brown mohair,
stitched snout, jointed limbs,
37in, some wear, repair, eyes
replaced. Gorringes, Lewes.
Mar 03. HP: £260. ABP: £305.
15
10
18
1930s Chad Valley teddy
bear, gold plush bear, wide
pricked ears, amber eyes,
vertical stitched snout,
jointed limbs, leatherette pads,
14.5in. Fellows & Sons,
Brimingham. Oct 03. HP:
£250. ABP: £294.
19
2
English gold plush teddy bear,
hump-back and jointed limbs,
post-war, eyes replaced, 26in.
Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 03.
HP: £560. ABP: £658.
Chad Valley golden plush
bear, 70cm high, growling
mechanism. Richard
Winterton, Burton on Trent.
Jun 03. HP: £420. ABP: £494.
3
Early J.K.Farnell teddy bear,
blonde plush with glass eyes,
shaven snout, hump-back and
characteristic webbed paws,
c1920, two pads replaced,
growler inoperative, 15.5in.
Gorringes, Lewes. Jun 03.
HP: £560. ABP: £658.
7
English mohair teddy bear,
pre-war, blonde plush, boot
button eyes, jointed limbs,
8in. (plush worn) Gorringes,
Lewes. Jan 03. HP: £360.
ABP: £423.
4
8
Merrythought cheeky bear,
ears fitted with bells, amber
eyes, vertical stitched pointed
Draylon snout, stitched white
felt pads and maker’s label,
11in high. Fellows & Sons,
Brimingham. Oct 03. HP:
£320. ABP: £376.
English Teddy Bear, 1920s,
poss. J.K. Farnell, protruding
snout, glass eyes, light brown
mohair plush, wood-wool
filling, jointed limbs, 22in,
fair-good. Gorringes, Lewes.
Mar 03. HP: £260. ABP: £305.
Prices quoted are actual
hammer prices (HP) and the
Approximate Buyer’s Price.
(ABP) Includes an average
premium of 15% + VAT.
11
Three English pre-war Teddy
Bears, each with blonde
mohair plush, jointed limbs,
two with glass eyes, 15in and
12in, some wear. Gorringes,
Lewes. Mar 03. HP: £300.
ABP: £352.
16
12
Chiltern Hygenic Toys teddy
bear, blond plush, 62cm high.
Cheffins, Cambridge. Dec
00. HP: £230. ABP: £270.
20
English beige mohair bear,
brown eyes, curved arms,
large felt, rexine pads, 2ft
3in. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr
01. HP: £220. ABP: £258.
21
Three English Teddy bears,
two in blonde mohair plush,
other in gold, all with glass
eyes and jointed limbs, 16in.
Gorringes, Lewes. Jun 05.
HP: £300. ABP: £352.
Chad Valley pre war teddy
bear covered in (worn) long
gold plush, swivel head and
limbs, amber eyes, replaced
pads (ear button), 15in high.
Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. Sep
05. HP: £260. ABP: £305.
17
Chad Valley teddy bear, post
war, gold plush, glass eyes,
jointed body, 23in.
Gorringes, Lewes. Jan 04.
HP: £220. ABP: £258.
13
22
Early English teddy bear,
poss. Farnell, blonde plush
with glass eyes, protruding
stitched snout, jointed limbs,
formerly with hump, c1925,
worn, 23in. Gorringes,
Lewes. Mar 05. HP: £500.
ABP: £588.
Merrythought gold plush
teddy bear, wide pricked ears,
amber glass eyes and pointed
embroidered snout, dark red
felt pads and makers label to
foot, 22in high. Fellows &
Sons, Brimingham. Oct 03.
HP: £360. ABP: £423.
ANTIQUES INFO - March/April 09
English teddy bear, amber
glass eyes, stitched snout,
short blonde plush straw
stuffed body, replaced pads,
in sailor suit, 26in tall.
Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. Sep
05. HP: £280. ABP: £329.
Pre-war Farnell teddy bear,
straw filled, pale gold plush,
swivel head and limbs, black
and clear glass eyes, sewn
pointed snout, felt paws,
(residual) growl, leather waist
coat, 18in. Hartleys, Ilkley.
Sep 08. HP: £260. ABP: £305.
English teddy bear, glass
eyes, gold mohair plush and
jointed limbs, some wear,
28in. Gorringes, Lewes. Jul
04. HP: £220. ABP: £258.
Teddy Bears
28
33
43
38
23
Merrythought ‘Cheeky Muff’
teddy bear, 12in high, slight
wear. Sworders, Stansted
Mountfitchet. Dec 01. HP:
£210. ABP: £247.
Chiltern teddy bear, curly
pink plush, amber eyes, sewn
nose, swivel head and limbs,
velvet pads, 15.5in high.
Hartleys, Ilkley. Sep 08. HP:
£190. ABP: £223.
English teddy Bear, gold
plush, glass eyes and shaven
snout, 1930s 2ft 2in.
Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 03.
HP: £150. ABP: £176.
Large Chad Valley dark gold
plush articulated teddy bear,
black stitched muzzle, faux
suede pads, growl box, label
to paw, 26.5in high. Hartleys,
Ilkley. Sep 08. HP: £95.
ABP: £111.
Chiltern ‘Ting-a-Ling’ teddy
bear, worn gold plush, swivel
head and limbs, amber/black
eyes, sewn snout and claws,
leatherette pads, in mauve
dungarees, 12in high.
Hartleys, Ilkley. Sep 08. HP:
£55. ABP: £64.
44
39
34
24
Merrythought teddy bear
‘Milly’ , pale gold plush,
jointed head and limbs, amber
eyes, stitched nose and paws,
knitted dress, 20in high, prewar. Andrew Hartley, Ilkley.
Sep 05. HP: £210. ABP: £247.
29
Chiltern Teddy bear, blonde
plush, jointed limbs, velvet
pads, 17in. Gorringes,
Lewes. Oct 04. HP: £180.
ABP: £211.
Large ‘Merrythought’ cheeky
type teddy bear, pale plush
with bell ears and glass eyes,
26in. Gorringes, Lewes. Jul
03. HP: £130. ABP: £152.
Chad Valley teddy bear.
Richard Winterton, Burton
on Trent, Staffs. Apr 04. HP:
£90. ABP: £105.
40
English mid 20thC Teddy
Bear, flock filled, covered in
gold plush, swivel head and
limbs, amber/black eyes, sewn
nose, felt pads, 22in high and
another similar bear, 24in
high. Hartleys, Ilkley. Sep 08.
HP: £55. ABP: £64.
30
45
35
25
Merrythought Cheeky bear,
fully jointed, golden plush,
internal ear bells, glass
button eyes, black stitched
nose and mouth, brown felt
paws, 22cm. Gorringes,
Lewes. Mar 01. HP: £200.
ABP: £235.
Chiltern musical bear. Black
Country Auctions, Dudley.
Oct 05. HP: £180. ABP: £211.
Merrrythought ‘Cheeky’ bear.
Cotswold Auction Company,
Cirencester. Nov 05. HP:
£120. ABP: £141.
31
English teddy bear, straw
filled, covered in worn faded
gold plush, black and clear
eyes, swivel head and limbs,
replaced pads, early 20thC,
21in high. Hartleys, Ilkley.
Sep 08. HP: £75. ABP: £88.
26
English teddy bear, in gold
plush, plastic eyes, velvet
pads, each ear containing a
bell, 1950s 16in. Gorringes,
Lewes. Apr 03. HP: £50.
ABP: £58.
41
46
36
English bright gold plush
Teddy Bear, 1920s, glass
eyes, stitched, protruding
snout,jointed limbs,19in, and
another, post-war, possibly
Deans, 17in - both with some
wear) Gorringes, Lewes. Mar
03. HP: £200. ABP: £235.
Chad Valley gold plush
jointed teddy bear with long
arms, 30in. Biddle & Webb,
Birmingham. Sep 08. HP:
£180. ABP: £211.
1950s Chad Valley teddy
bear, wide pricked ears,
amber eyes, stitched snout,
brown velvet pads, wearing a
purple bow tie, 19in high.
Fellows & Sons, Brimingham.
Oct 03. HP: £110. ABP: £129.
37
English mid 20thC long
haired blond plush fur teddy
bear, clear/black glass eyes,
replaced felt pads, 17in high.
Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. Sep
01. HP: £70. ABP: £82.
Two English Teddy bears,
post-war, in blonde plush,
plastic eyes, jointed limbs,
24in and 18in. Gorringes,
Lewes. Mar 05. HP: £50.
ABP: £58.
32
27
42
47
Large Chiltern Hug Me plush
teddy bear, jointed body,
65cm high. Charterhouse
Auctioneers, Sherborne. Mar
08. HP: £190. ABP: £223.
Early English teddy bear,
glass eyes, hump back, plush
worn, 19in. Gorringes,
Lewes. Apr 03. HP: £150.
ABP: £176.
Early English teddy bear,
possibly Farnell, woodwool
filled, hump back, large black
glass eyes, plush worn, 21in.
Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 03.
HP: £100. ABP: £117.
Merrythought cheeky bear,
brown felt pads, printed
Ironbridge label, 47cm high.
Rosebery’s, London. Jul 07.
HP: £70. ABP: £82.
Two-tone teddy bear, prob.
Chad Valley ‘Cubby’, 15in.
Biddle & Webb, Birmingham.
Sep 08. HP: £45. ABP: £52.
ANTIQUES INFO - March/April 09