Teddy Bear
description
Transcript of Teddy Bear
Teddy bear
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Teddy bear (disambiguation).
A German teddy bear from around 1954
The teddy bear is a soft toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by
toymakers Morris Michtom in the US and Richard Steiff in Germany in the early years of the
20th century, and named after President Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr., the teddy bear became
an iconic children's toy, celebrated in story, song and film.[1]
Since the creation of the first teddy
bears which sought to imitate the form of real bear cubs, "teddies" have greatly varied in form,
style and material. They have become collector's items, with older and rarer "teddies" appearing
at public auctions.[2]
Teddy bears are among the most popular gifts for children and are often
given to adults to signify love, congratulations or sympathy.
Contents
1 History
2 Production
o 2.1 Commercial
o 2.2 Amateur
o 2.3 Antiques
3 Impact
o 3.1 Teddy bear museums
o 3.2 Teddy bear cops
o 3.3 Teddy bear festivals
o 3.4 Brunus edwardii joke
4 References
5 External links
History
A 1902 political cartoon in The Washington Post spawned the Teddy bear name.
The name Teddy Bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who was
commonly known as "Teddy" (though he loathed being referred to as such).[3]
The name
originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which
Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other
hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's
attendants, led by Holt Collier,[4]
cornered, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bear to a
willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and
suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this
unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery,[5][6]
and it
became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on
November 16, 1902.[7]
While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a handler and a
disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons
made the bear smaller and cuter.[8]
Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a new toy. He created
a little stuffed bear cub and put it in his shop window with a sign that read "Teddy's bear," after
sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an
immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co.[6]
Replica of the teddy 55PB of Steiff
At the same time in Germany, the Steiff firm, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced a stuffed
bear from Richard Steiff's designs. Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March
1903, where it was seen by Hermann Berg, a buyer for George Borgfeldt & Company in New
York. He ordered 3000 to be sent to the United States.[9]
Although Steiff's records show that the
bears were produced, they are not recorded as arriving in America, and no example of the type,
"55 PB", has ever been seen, leading to the story that the bears were shipwrecked. However, the
story is disputed - Gunther Pfieffer notes that it was only recorded in 1953 and says it is more
likely that the 55 PB was not sufficiently durable to survive until the present day.[10]
Although
Steiff and Michtom were both making teddy bears at around the same time, neither would have
known of the other's creation due to poor transatlantic communication.[7]
By 1906 manufacturers other than Michtom and Steiff had joined in and the craze for "Roosevelt
Bears" was such that ladies carried them everywhere, children were photographed with them,
and Roosevelt used one as a mascot in his bid for re-election.[citation needed]
American educator Seymour Eaton wrote the children's book series The Roosevelt Bears,[11]
while composer John Bratton wrote "The Teddy Bear Two Step" which, with the addition of
Jimmy Kennedy's lyrics, became the song "The Teddy Bears' Picnic".
Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts and beady eyes.
Modern teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and foreheads and smaller noses, babylike features
that enhance the toy's cuteness. Teddy bears are also manufactured to represent different species
of bear, such as polar bears and grizzly bears, as well as pandas.
While early teddy bears were covered in tawny mohair fur, modern teddy bears are manufactured
in a wide variety of commercially available fabrics, most commonly synthetic fur, but also
velour, denim, cotton, satin, and canvas.
Production
Commercial
Commercially made, mass-produced teddy bears are predominantly made as toys for children.
These bears have safety joints for attaching arms, legs, and heads. They must have securely
fastened eyes that do not pose a choking hazard for small children. These "plush" bears must
meet a rigid standard of construction in order to be marketed to children in the United States and
in the European Union.
There are also companies, like Steiff, that sell handmade collectible bears that can be purchased
in stores or over the Internet. The majority of teddy bears are manufactured in countries such as
China and Indonesia. A few small, single-person producers in the United States make unique,
non-mass-produced teddy bears. In the United Kingdom one small, traditional teddy bear
company remains, Merrythought, which was established in 1930.[12]
Mohair, the fur shorn or
combed from a breed of long haired goats, is woven into cloth, dyed and trimmed. Alpaca teddy
bears are made from the pelt of an alpaca because the fiber is too soft to weave. In addition to
mohair and alpaca, there is a huge selection of "plush" or synthetic fur made for the teddy bear
market. Both these types of fur are commercially produced.
Making of a teddy bear
1: Cutting
2: Sewing and turning
3: Filling
4: Assembling
Amateur
Teddy bears are a favourite form of soft toy for amateur toy makers, with many patterns
commercially produced or available online. Many "teddies" are home-made as gifts or for
charity, while "teddy bear artists" often create "teddies" for retail, decorating them individually
with commercial and recycled ornaments such as sequins, beads and ribbons . Sewn teddy bears
are made from a wide range of materials including felt, cotton and velour. While many are
stitched, others are made from yarn, either knitted or crocheted. Teddy bears are also made of
plywood and a range of other craft materials.
Antiques
Michtom's jointed mohair “Teddy’s bear” was very popular when first designed and remains so
with collectors today. Fake bears look suspiciously new and unhandled: their noses are unworn,
and their seams may be thick and uneven. All Ideal bears have jointed hips, necks, and shoulders.
Early examples have a characteristic “American football” shape and are mostly made of short,
gold or beige mohair plush with matching felt paws, and distinctive, sharply pointed foot pads.
They have shoe-button or glass eyes, and the fur around the muzzle may be shorn. Later bears
were made in a large variety of colours and types - for example, pandas - and had longer fur.
Other collectible bears include ones by the Knickerbocker Toy Co. (active 1924-5) in New York,
which are clearly marked with a label in the front seam. Similar to many early American bears,
Knickerbocker bears usually have long bodies, small feet, and short, straight arms and legs. Their
later bears can be recognized by their large inverted ears and big noses. Other collectible bears
include Gund Manufacturing Co. (est. 1898), now in New York, and “Hershey’s bears”, which
were designed to promote The Hershey Company’s chocolate bars.[13]
Impact
A World War 2, Royal Air Force Boulton Paul Defiant fighter crew with their teddy bear mascot
Toy Rilakkuma bears in a Tokyo arcade
Retail sales of stuffed plush animals including teddy bears was $1.3 billion in 2006.[14]
The most
commonly sold brands include Gund and Ty Inc. Brands associated with teddy bears that
enjoyed strong popularity in the 1980s and 1990s are Teddy Ruxpin and Care Bears.
Teddy bears have seen a resurgence in popularity as international "do-it-yourself" chains have
opened. Among the largest and best-known are Build-A-Bear Workshop and Vermont Teddy
Bear Company.
Some popular mass-marketed teddy bears made today include Rupert, Sooty, Paddington, and
Pudsey Bear. Books have also been written with the teddy bear featured as their main character.
These include Winnie-the-Pooh, Corduroy, Teddy Tells Time, and Teddy Dressing.
Teddy bear museums
The world's first teddy bear museum was set up in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, in 1984. In
1990, a similar foundation was set up in Naples, Florida, United States. These were closed in
2006 and 2005 respectively, and the bears were sold in auctions, but there are today many teddy
bear museums around the world.
Teddy bear cops
Because police, fire and emergency officials found that giving a teddy bear to a child during a
crisis stabilized and calmed them, NAPLC created the Teddy Bear Cops program to distribute
teddy bears to police, fire, and emergency officials throughout the United States, for their use in
providing teddy bears to children in emergencies.[15][16]
Teddy bear festivals
Teddy bear festivals have now become popular around the world, taking place in Australia,
America, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and Germany.[citation needed]
Brunus edwardii joke
In April 1972, issue 90 of The Veterinary Record included a paper on the diseases of Brunus
edwardii: a description of lost limbs and thinning hair, accompanied by sketches of a teddy bear
resembling Winnie the Pooh.[17][18]