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My friend REX has gotten many questions from kids asking why Bear Beanies are so sought after and usually hard to find. I took him to the local flea market on Sunday, 9 August 1998, and we were doing the usual brisk walk past the hundreds of tables when our eagle eyes noticed a very tattered book in a plastic baggie on one of the simple tables made of 2x4s with a pressed wood panel eight feet long by about four feet wide as the table top to display one's wares.
On the cover of the book were two cute Bears dressed in Scottish garb, and one was playing the bagpipe. REX was already jumping up and down on my shoulder (he really loves to read, and he teaches the other Beanies so many things from his experience and travels) -- until we noticed the $60 label on the baggie. I looked at the tome anyway and the nice lady said that it was given to her Grandfather, Foster Bates, for Christmas, 1912, from the Sunday School for Good Attendance -- a simple ink inscription to that effect appeared on the flyleaf.
It contained many black and white drawings of two Bears at various points in their travels, and also had eight color lithographic plates.
The ole dinosaur said to the lady that he would like the book because he likes Bears, but the price was a tad high because its condition was so poor. Even prehistoric animals have a sense of value! So we finally got it for $10!
Three vendors further down from there displayed another larger and newer book on Bears, and it was only $2, so he used up the rest of his allowance to get that also. A Collector's History of the Teddy Bear was written by Patricia N. Schoonmaker (sounds Flemish, possibly Pennsylvania Dutch), and published in 1981 by Hobby House Press in Cumberland, Maryland. Many of the illustrations which are included in this story are from her book.
When we returned to the nursery REX showed the books to all his Beanie pals and then spent hours reading them both to the gang. Peace and Princess were particularly interested, needless to say!. I shall let REX relate what he learned about this really intriguing topic.
Did you know that collecting bears, stuffed or otherwise, is termed ARCTOPHILY?? Wow, I learned something new and I just started reading!!
Bears have been frequent in art for thousands of years. There are some painting on prehistoric cave walls and engraved rocks that show bears. European oil paintings also contain bears, and carved wooden bear figures are common, especially in the region of the Black Forest, in Germany. Some of them are huge! Massive Rococo pieces of furniture are frequently found with Bears among the numerous and varied carvings.
Cave bear fossils are common in Europe and highly sought after by palaeontologists.
The American Indians still carve bears in various varieties of stone, shell and jet as fetishes, formerly used in hunting, more or less as good luck "charms".
Many companies in the late 1800s used bears in their advertising fliers and labels. These things were all simple bears which Mrs. Schoonmaker calls Bruins, or the usually upright-standing massive bear. Fables such as The Three Little Bears were common in many cultures.
It was in late November of 1902, that President Theodore Roosevelt went to Smedes, Mississippi in an attempt to end a boundary dispute between that State and Louisiana. He went hunting, accompanied by the usual paparazzi (YES, they existed then also!), but had not bagged a bear yet. Just before leaving, someone ran over and told the President they had found a bear-- and dragged over a small cub at the end of a rope!! Roosevelt could not shoot the little critter, and the political cartoonist, Clifford K. Berryman published his eyewitness satirical rendition of the Roosevelt-Bear (which almost looks like a Micky Mouse Club member!!) encounter in that same year. He followed with many other Roosevelt cartoons also featuring Teddy's Bear. In 1907 another political cartoon graced the cover of Judge magazine, showing two differently colored bears in the President's arms and now adding an electoral touch.
In about 1903 it is said that Morris Michtom, a Russian emigre, wrote to President Roosevelt asking if he could use the name, Teddy, in the manufacture of TEDDY BEARS, and that the President replied in the positive. Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in New York and apparently worked alone with his wife from 1903 to 1907. When one bear [photo of the original Michtom bear, similar to the one in the Smithsonian collections] was sold from the window display, Mrs. Michtom would make another!! Their first recorded advertisement for the new Teddy Bear appeared as a half-page ad, 1908, in Playthings [a trade magazine first published in 1903 -- the first Teddy Bear ad appeared in May 1906]. In 1938 the company name was changed to the Ideal Toy Corporation.
It is recorded that Teddy Bears were very popular at the New Jersey shore resorts in the boardwalk shops, at Atlantic City, for example, already in 1905!
At about the same time period a gentleman named Seymore Eaton, of ATH-DARA, his estate in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, began writing a series of childrens' books, in rhyming verse, on the adventures of The Roosevelt Bears, Teddy-B and Teddy-G., a pair of friendly, very knowledgeable Bruin-like bears, BUT they were now called "Teddys". One of them, Teddy-G, even wore spectacles similar to those of Teddy Roosevelt! I wonder if the G and B stood for Good and Bad or mischievous??
As with many other books of the time, the first of the Eaton Teddy volumes appeared as a serial in the Sunday supplement of several newspapers in 1905. Even H.G.Wells' seminal science - fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, first appeared in America in the pages of the Cosmopolitan in April of 1897!! Taking into account the time between the research, actual writing, proof reading and corrections, as well as the preparation of the illustrations, it is safe to assume that the first book was begun as early as mid-1904. The first series of Roosevelt Bear (= Teddy Bear) tales includes the following titles :
Teddy B and Teddy G, The Roosevelt Bears, Their Adventures and Travels illustrated by V. Floyd Campbell, copyright by Seymore Eaton and Edward Stern and Company, and published by Barse and Hopkins, New York; 16 color illustrations and many in black and white.
More About Teddy B and Teddy G, The Roosevelt Bears, now illustrated with 16 color lithographs as well as black and white drawings by R.K. Culver; same copyrights and publisher as above.
Teddy-B and Teddy-G, The Roosevelt Bears Abroad. Cover, Frontispiece and copyright data shown in these scans. Only eight color lithographs and a profusion of black and white drawings (meeting King Edward, complete with ceremonial ermine robe!) illustrate this gem. Eaton copyrighted it in 1907 and Stern in the following year, that of its published book form. Eaton explains briefly why he wrote this book.
The Bears travelled extensively in Europe and Canada, and were shown at the dock leaving the United States, on board the ship, at Stratford-On-Avon, in Paris, Russia, and in Rome.
I found it particularly interesting that in a child's book, advertised for ages 5-8, that the kids way back in 1905 were introduced to Walter Scott, Shakespeare, Rob Roy, Hamlet, the Venus of Milos, the Zuyder Zee, Rembrandt, Galileo, Virgil, Cleopatra and countless other historical figures and places. I guess their parents found more time to sit and read to them every day, and talk about what they were reading. NO televison, cell phones, computers and chat rooms, video games and the many other things that distract most people these days! One of my favorite pastimes is to read and tell stories to my fellow Beanies at night before turning in. We don't have a TV or anything but we are always learning new things by reading books!!
This is actually where my story began. This is the book that Sonny and I found at the flea market!! Synchronicity at work again!!
The Bear Detectives was the last of this first set, and was illustrated with eight color reproductions by Francis P. Wightman and William K. Sweeney. I assume the copyrights and publisher remained the same.
The Teddy Bear market rapidly spread throughout the United States and Europe, Germany in particular with Margaritte Steiff, born in 1847 (died in 1909) in the German town of Giengen-on-the Brenz. Her reported first stuffed toy was an elephant pincushion, but she later branched out into monkeys, donkeys, horses, pigs, hedgehogs and camels. Her nephew, Richard, studied art and from his sketches of the bears at the Stuttgart zoo, he designed the first stuffed bear having movable joints. NO, they did NOT all have the metal Knopf im Ohr. They were first made in 1902, appearing at the Leipzig Fair with Friend Fritz, the primer jointed bear on record -- BUT still not a Teddy. They reached the American market in 1903 -- about the same time that Ideal was making their Teddy Bears, but on a more limited scale. Steiff's most notable production year was 1907, when over 974,000 bears were sold!
A Sears and Roebuck catalog of 1908 not only offered various sizes, but they were also equipped with GROWLERS -- they would make a growling or squeaking noise when squeezed. The ad also states that the bears should not be considered a political advertisement or simply a fad!! How politically correct they were even in those days!
Some of the early Teddys wore Roosevelt - style spectacles!! Soon, clothes for the bears, clown and other costumes, and even patterns to make one's own teddys appeared on the market, as did other bear accessories, games, tin mechanical bears, musical bears, bears having electrified eyes that would light up, beach buckets and other items with a bear motif. Newspapers and other periodicals offered both the bears and the patterns for making your own as gifts to subscribers. And all of this notable explosion of Teddy Bears occurred decades before the advent of computers and the internet!!
Well, there you have it. My rapid overview of how the Teddy Bear came to be.
Oh, yes, while on the subject : at the flea market Sonny also introduced me to the nice lady who last week "sold" him a bunch of my relatives, the Attic Collectibles, also made by Father Ty. This time she only had a 5th generation Cody, 5th Madison, 5th Ivan, 6th Purcy, 5th Whiskers, 5th Christopher and 5th Grover, all of which we snapped up at below their original prices!! I am learning from him!!
Well, thank you very much, REX old friend, for your really great history of how and when the Teddy Bear originated. I had no idea of how quickly he became popular-- it only took a couple years after that first cartoon in 1902!! That is unbelievable!!
He promised to update his history if he finds new information. He really loves trying to provide information on Beanies and science subjects. Have you seen some of the emails he has gotten this year? You can check them out at REX'S MAILBOX. He often surprises me with answers to the most complicated questions sent in by kids.
I have to remind myself to clip his claws again. When I am at the computer REX usually jumps up on my left shoulder to see what I am doing and every once in a while, like a cat, he is so comfortable and content his claws dig in a little. OUCH!!
WOW, he is back in the nursery fast asleep already -- the poor thing spent the entire night working on this, hoping to be able to help his friends learn something new about a subject they enjoy.
Can anyone help me identify 2 Bears which I acquired in Germany. They look old. GO TO BEARS.
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